Dáil starts six-week summer break after vitriolic exchanges

The Dáil will return from its summer recess on Tuesday September 15th after a break of six weeks.

The House adjourned in the early hours on Friday morning after a late night of vitriolic exchanges, votes and suspensions in bitterly divisive row over changes to speaking rights and the order in which TDs get to speak.

Shortly after a series of votes about the changes to the order TDs from different parties get to speak, Government Chief Whip Jack Chambers came into the Dáil to propose that the Dáil on its adjournment should return on September 15th.

The summer adjournment was approved only after a vote when Sinn Féin enterprise spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly opposed the suspension for that time.

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Ms O’Reilly said “we do not need six weeks holidays. I think it would be much more appropriate if we were to resume proceedings on September 1st”.

She said the House should resume on Tuesday when Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys should answer questions about the controversy over the stopping of pandemic unemployment payments for individuals travelling abroad.

Ms O’Reilly said there was grave concern about what was happening at Dublin airport and the concerns of the Data Protection Commissioner.

Labour TD Aodhán Ó Riordáin supported the Sinn Féin proposal. He said people on pandemic payments for those who are self-employed and those in receipt of employee wages, who would now be put on a lower schedule of payments.

This could only be resolved if the Dáil is sitting and “we can’t have a six week recess for those in receipt of this payment”.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath was heckled when he rose to oppose the recess. He said the Dáil should not rise but should continue next week.

In a statement after the chaotic scenes Labour Party whip Duncan Smith said that “new politics died tonight” and “the Government has taken back full control of the Dáil”.

He said “the business committee and Dáil reform committee may as well not exist now”.

Mr Smith said Taoiseach Micheál Martin had “committed to end government control of Dáil in 2016 but he has now reversed the reforms he demanded then.”

At the time Mr Martin as leader of the Opposition said “one of the core elements of Dáil reform should be a ‘major limit on ability of government to control all business on an ongoing basis’.

“Those words are now empty as the first meaningful act of changes to the running of the Dáil under his government is to reorder the speaking order for smaller groups and abandon the landmark reform that was the Business Committee.”