Both sides trade sharp exchanges as Bills get the chop

DAIL SKETCH:THE SPIRIT of Madame La Guillotine continued to haunt Dáil Éireann yesterday as debate on three more Bills was scheduled for the chop.

Perhaps deputies are feeling twitchy as a result, but it’s more likely the inevitable crankiness from long nights as Bill after Bill is hammered through and all deputies have to remain in the House or its vicinity in case of a vote, a frequent occurrence late at night.

And as they limp to the summer recess next Friday, the inevitable political inability to make a concession is hardened. Neither side likes to concede on any issue, and there are a few, though rare cases where Ministers and indeed Opposition deputies yield.

But everything doesn’t always have to be an argument. Sometimes, it’s easier to just agree.

But this is the Dáil after all and it was daggers drawn, or even guillotines.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan certainly got the Opposition into high dudgeon very early on. She listed out yesterday’s fairly lengthy order of business and the guillotines, or deadlines for debate on each Bill. This means that no matter how many amendments are left to be considered, the final vote is called and only the Minister’s unreached amendments are acceptable.

Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny repeated that “this is not the way to do business” as he estimated that some 10 Bills in all would be guillotined this week and next.

Labour’s Eamon Gilmore said that yesterday’s three Bills could probably be done without guillotine if they were re-ordered.

Only 90 minutes were available for major issues in the Criminal Justice Bill, while almost five hours had been allocated for dealing with an EU-related Bill which could be done quickly. So the Dáil was scheduled to sit until 10pm.

In the end, he proved right. They had shut up shop at 6pm, while the Seanad slaved away late into the night.

But what upset the Opposition no end was when the Tánaiste insisted that she could not change the order of business because it had been agreed with the whips.

She then denied she’d said it when Fine Gael whip Paul Kehoe demanded a retraction – or there would be no further co-operation from his party.

“You shouldn’t take yourself too seriously,” said Fianna Fáil’s Seán Power to Kehoe.

Emmet Stagg was more conciliatory. “The Tánaiste may have inadvertently misled the House.” But the Tánaiste could not agree. “There was no mistake,” she insisted. “The same antics continue every time we come to the end of a session.”

That didn’t help and in fact added to the antics.

The Tánaiste dug deeper. “In the context of the agreement with the whips, the method by which the schedule was agreed was the same for this week’s business as it has been for every week since we started.”

Kehoe again demanded a retraction and threatened no co-operation, at which point the Ceann Comhairle said: “Is the proposal for agreeing question time agreed?” Everyone agreed.

Deputy Kehoe had effectively overshot the runway.

But there were two subsequent votes and the order of business dragged on for more than an hour. Indeed, it really is sometimes easier just to agree.