The Government will say a paper examining speaking rights in four other parliaments at a crucial meeting of the Dáil Reform Committee today bolsters its argument in favour of affording specific speaking rights to a small group of Independent TDs which supports the Programme for Government.
A briefing paper was commissioned by the Ceann Comhiarle from the Oireachtas Library and Research Services which did case studies on the parliamentary rules that apply in Denmark, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden.
The briefing paper, which has been seen by The Irish Times, outlined how some of the parliaments had developed new procedures to respond to minority government, and the proliferation of smaller parties and groups that have become a feature of western democracies in recent years.
However, it reported that independent members of parliament are a feature of Irish parliamentary democracy not found in the other parliaments studied.
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It also found that Ireland’s situation and its weekly schedules were quite different from the arrangements in other States. “There is nothing similar to be found in the rules of procedure for the parliaments studied for this research paper.
The key findings of the 12-page paper were that political fragmentation was observed across the parliaments studied, leading to some very small parties being represented in parliament.
“Generally, speaking time allocated to the parliamentary groups was based on the size of the group.”
It found that most groups were members of the same political party although the Spanish Congreso provided for a “mixed group” of MPs, which was somewhat similar to the technical groups in the Dáil.
“Government formation in New Zealand often includes ministerial positions being offered to support parties. These are known as ‘Ministers outside cabinet’ as they do not attend cabinet meetings,” it states.
While the paper does offer support for novel arrangements to respond to increased fragmentation in parliament, it is likely the Opposition will argue there is no conclusive evidence to support the formation of a group which specifically supports the Government.
It comes as Government, and Opposition, whips have each stated categorically they will stand their ground on the issue of Dáil speaking rights in advance of a meeting on Wednesday afternoon to resolve the long-running dispute.
All 75 members of Opposition have combined to adopt a joint position of “absolute and united opposition” to any Opposition time being carved out to accommodate a group of independents which is supporting the Government.
They have specifically objected to the group, which is led by Michael Lowry, being afforded access to Leaders’ Questions and Priority Questions.
On Wednesday morning, the Government Chief Whip Mary Butler also signalled that there would be no change to Leaders’ Questions from the Opposition under proposals put forward by her last week.
In a submission Ms Butler proposed that a new slot of Other Members Questions be introduced into the weekly schedule, that would allow Independent TDs who were not in an Opposition technical group, as well as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbench TDs, to ask one question each of An Taoiseach.
The facilitation of that slot would result in the reduction of Taoiseach’s Questions (only open to questions from the Opposition) from two slots, to one slot, a week.
In a statement on Wednesday morning defending the change, Ms Butler said that the new Other Members’ Questions slot would occur on Wednesday and Thursday (with questions being put to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste).
“Over three weeks the Independent TDs would get a total of 16 minutes of time (including answers from the Government) so a little over five minutes a week.
In a strongly-worded letter to the Ceann Comhairle on Tuesday night, the leaders of the Opposition insisted they would oppose the chances.
Their leaders accused the Government of making a “mockery” of the democratic system of the Dáil.
“These speaking slots are designed explicitly for Opposition TDs to fulfil our democratic responsibility to hold the government to account,” stated the letter. It was signed by Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Ivana Bacik (LP), Cian O’Callaghan (SD), Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP) and Michael Collins (II).
“Government manoeuvres to try to achieve this outcome are farcical, disrupt the proper functioning of the Dáil and undermine the democratic process itself,” they stated.
Sinn Féin whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said on Wednesday that if the Government railroaded the changes through the Committee, the Opposition would have no choice other than to oppose the formation of Oireachtas committees, and would also not co-operate with the Government on Dáil business.
