The Dáil was adjourned for 20 minutes in a heated row about the appointment of the chair for the special committee on water charges on Thursday.
Independent Senator Pádraig O Ceidigh was later confirmed as chairman after a 92 to 39 vote and a suspension of the Dail.
The committee was established to deal with the report, due next week, on the future of water services and charges.
AAA-PBP TD Mick Barry accused the Government of attempting a “stitch up” by appointing Mr O Ceidigh as chairman of the committee of 20 TDs and Senators who will deal with the report of the Expert Commission established to make recommendations for a sustainable model for water services.
Mr Barry refused to sit down and claimed it was an attempt by Government to “pull a sly one” by appointing a Senator, when they said it should be for the Seanad to pick their four representatives on the committee and he said they had only received a notice of the motion just over an hour earlier.
During the suspension a 15-minute debate on the issue was agreed. Mr Barry said the move “queers the pitch” on the make-up of the committee.
He refused to withdraw remarks that the Government was “pulling a sly one” despite a call from Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty to do so. Ms Doherty said all parties and groupings had been informed on Wednesday about the motion and she said the Opposition did not know what normal procedures were.
Minister for Local Government Simon Coveney said they were trying to get as neutral a person as possible to manage and chair what he said would be a very difficult committee and he added that the issue had been flagged all week.
He said he had insisted that every party and grouping be represented on the committee and he had rejected the D’Hondt system because it would have excluded some from the committee, which will have three months to debate the issue and report back to the Dáil.
The Minister said it was an “unusual step” for the motion establishing the group to include the committee but the chairs of other committees such as the Public Accounts Committee are agreed.
He added that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had a majority in the Dáil so “is it undemocratic that they have a majority on the committee”.
Sinn Féin local government spokesman Eoin O Broin submitted an amendment that the committee should be allowed to select its own chair but this was defeated by 92 votes to 39.
Mr O Broin said Mr Coveney had spoken to most of the groupings by phone about the establishment of a committee and its make-up and that was reasonable but he said the first they heard that Senator O Ceidigh would be the chair of the committee was in a Sunday newspaper.
“It’s not only a breach of procedure” he said but also an attempt to determine who the extra member of the Seanad would be on the committee.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin said there was a principle that committees select their own chairs and this should be adhered to.
AAA-PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that when Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil decide “in some sort of backroom deal” on who the chair would be, “that’s when things begin to go off the rails”.
AAA-PBP TD Ruth Coppinger said the chair of the committee would have a “crucial influence” on what would go back to the Dáil from the committee.
