Ar dtús báire, is mian liom a rá nach n-aontaím in aon chor leis an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta McDonald.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Tá sé dochreidte an méid atá ráite aici. Níl i gceist againn ach ocht nóiméad ar an Mháirt agus ocht nóiméad breise ar an gCéadaoin a thabhairt do chúlbhinseoirí-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----an Rialtais agus Teachtaí Dála neamhspleácha. In essence, I have to say that-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----the distortion of the debate is extraordinary. The disproportionate response of Sinn Féin and indeed the Opposition is extraordinary. Considering that this Dáil meets 101 days approximately per year.
Sentiment score: 0.00
What is being proposed for 60 TDs is that they would have an opportunity-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----of eight minutes on a Tuesday and eight minutes on a Wednesday to ask a question of the Taoiseach of the day. That actually means that for an individual in that group of 60, it could be an opportunity-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
I have not interrupted anyone. It basically means that once a year-----
Sentiment score: 0.11
-----a backbench TD may get that opportunity to speak in these sorts of questions.
Sentiment score: 0.42
For all that, the Opposition has manufactured a political row and has raised this issue to heights that are quite farcical given the enormity of the issues we have to face as a country.
Sentiment score: 0.00
If I may say-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
Again, I respect-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
I respect the rights of every Deputy who is elected to this House. I respect their rights.
Sentiment score: 0.48
I respect their rights to be heard-----
Sentiment score: 0.48
-----as well as their rights to speak.
Sentiment score: 0.27
There is an attempt already to frustrate my attempt to speak here this afternoon in response to Deputy McDonald.
Sentiment score: -0.46
In a more serious vein, the Opposition has been endeavouring to, if you like, direct or dictate a new departure, whereby it becomes the Opposition-----
Sentiment score: 0.23
The Opposition is now saying that it is up to it to decide who sits where in this House, who forms what group-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
That is unprecedented by any yardstick.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I have never, and I am in this House-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
I was first elected to this House in 1989. I have never seen an attempt like this to say-----
Sentiment score: 0.18
I have never seen an attempt like this to tell-----
Sentiment score: 0.36
I hope Deputy McDonald notes that she got full respect and opportunity to speak from this side of the House. I was not afforded that respect and courtesy from the other side of the House when I endeavoured to answer a while ago.
Sentiment score: 0.41
Fundamentally-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
The point I was making is that I have never before witnessed political parties trying to tell others what box they are in or what group they belong to.
Sentiment score: 0.40
Let us see what is being proposed. Private Members' business still lasts for 120 minutes.
Sentiment score: 0.00
There is no change to that. Sponsor time is still 40 minutes, no change.
Sentiment score: -0.30
Sinn Féin's time remains exactly as it was in the last Dáil.
Sentiment score: 0.00
What is interesting is that each other Opposition grouping gains time in this Dáil under this proposal as compared with the last time out.
Sentiment score: 0.62
I can recall a time, when the Labour Party had a calamitous general election result, that we facilitated reducing the threshold to allow the Labour Party to have speaking rights. That is easily forgotten by the Deputy and her party members. There is no change in Ministers and Ministers of State responding to the Dáil. In other words, there is absolutely no change in terms of accountability of this Government to the Dáil in comparison with the last Dáil.
Sentiment score: 0.15
What is farcical is the extraordinary manufactured political row, which is wholly disproportionate to this issue-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
In other words, the change is very modest. It does not in any shape or form justify the level of dramatic action and feigned outrage that we are witnessing on the Opposition side.
Sentiment score: -0.26
I agree with Deputy that there are far more substantive and profound issues------
Sentiment score: 0.36
-----facing this country that we should now be getting on with, such as housing and disability services------
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----and perhaps what will perhaps be the most significant and profound economic winds blowing in our direction that we have seen for quite some time.
Sentiment score: 0.27
That is what this Dáil and Oireachtas need to focus on. We also need to focus on the wars that are raging in Europe and the Middle East with appalling and savage loss of life and slaughter of people. Are we seriously suggesting that giving eight minutes per day-----
Sentiment score: -0.25
-----to backbench TDs is such a profound change in the Standing Orders that it necessitates the feigned outrage that we are witnessing-----
Sentiment score: -0.51
I definitely do.
Sentiment score: 0.40
I make the point that the level of change here is so minuscule when you look at it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The 60 TDs will get one chance a year to participate in this forum and that is exciting everyone. There will be one opportunity for a backbench TD to question me, the Taoiseach of the day, and the Opposition is all up to high doh with feigned outrage.
Sentiment score: 0.25
I will make one final point. When an election happens, there is a fundamental obligation to form a Government-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----which has been completely lost of sight of-----
Sentiment score: -0.38
-----and the importance-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
Keep shouting, keep shouting.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The point I was making was that Governments were formed with the support of three Independent TDs, no one at the time------
Sentiment score: 0.13
It is noteworthy that people on the opposite side do not want to hear a response to the questions being asked.
Sentiment score: -0.06
It is a complete shoutdown. They shout down the debate because they do not want to hear explanations.
Sentiment score: -0.03
No Opposition TD ever lost any rights to this day. This has been proved by multiple senior counsel opinions at this stage under previous Standing Orders.
Sentiment score: -0.27
The Deputy feigns sympathy for the Government backbenchers-----
Sentiment score: 0.36
-----but there is an issue around proportionality in terms of how the Dáil is structured. In recent times, from 2016 onwards when we changed the thresholds to allow smaller groups to be formed, there has been a wholly disproportionate platform for some representatives, such as when one Independent joins three or four other Independents. They have had far more speaking time than Government backbenchers have had over the last five years and that is going to change. This is an attempt to rebalance that.
Sentiment score: 0.06
I am not very selective
Sentiment score: 0.00
Deputy, with the greatest of respect, your party was very grateful for the fact we were sympathetic enough-----
Sentiment score: 0.95
-----to accommodate you when you lost a whole range of seats.
Sentiment score: -0.32
I am fine.
Sentiment score: 0.20
The people voted in the last general election-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----and they clearly voted, whether you like it or not-----
Sentiment score: 0.64
It seems the election result never sunk in with people on the opposite side.
Sentiment score: 0.00
That is just a reality. Therefore, it fell to this side of the House-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----to form a government.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did not have the numbers.
Sentiment score: 0.20
You were not really interested in going into government.
Sentiment score: -0.36
You had no interest at all. You had none. Your manifesto was so threadbare in any detail that it was no wonder.
Sentiment score: -0.03
The Labour Party did not want to go into government------
Sentiment score: 0.36
The Labour Party did not want to go into government because it was watching you. You are both watching each other. You are both nervous of each other, so therefore you did not come forward.
Sentiment score: 0.03
Sinn Féin did not have the numbers to form a government-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----and Independent Ireland had some issues that we did not find agreement with but at least its members came in and engaged with us in a substantive way. The Regional Independent Group said they wanted to support and facilitate the formation of a government.
Sentiment score: 0.41
That is not new, by the way. That is not new.
Sentiment score: 0.00
This has been a feature of our fragmented system.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Our electoral system has in recent times and will in the future create a fragmented result. The danger in what the Opposition is saying is-----
Sentiment score: -0.13
Say after the next general election in five years' time, a potential government is short three or four TDs. Why would three or four Independent TDs volunteer to facilitate the formation of a government?
Sentiment score: 0.00
Why would they?
Sentiment score: 0.00
Why would they do that if it meant-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----that the rest of the Opposition said, "We are going to deny you your rights as TDs if you dare facilitate and support the Government". Looking at it from my perspective-----
Sentiment score: 0.04
-----and from a constitutional perspective, it is quite an extraordinary thing you are trying to do here which will actually-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----undermine any potential for the formation of a government into the future.
Sentiment score: 0.00
You are now basically saying that no Independent in the future-----
Sentiment score: -0.30
You are not a leader yet, Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I did not get a chance to finish what I was saying.
Sentiment score: -0.19
Westminster.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Deputies, I am making the point in answer to the question - in fairness the Deputy has asked questions and I think I should be allowed the right to answer but other Deputies do not want me to because they do not like the answer.
Sentiment score: -0.46
What I would say to you is this; in the future, for example, there could be three or four TDs who could facilitate the formation of a Government. What the Deputy is now saying is that Independent TDs in the future attempting to facilitate the formation of a Government will have their rights diminished. That is the essence of the Opposition proposal.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Take Deputies McGrath and Nolan, for example, they are part of this group. They have voted against the Government three or four times already but the Deputy and others are taking it upon themselves to tell them they must be corralled in a certain part of the Dáil and can only be allowed to do A, B and C. That is unconstitutional. You have no right to do that. You have absolutely no right to do that and it is wrong.
Sentiment score: -0.15
Such hyperbole is really stretching it. The bottom line is this-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
------that three of the Opposition parties gain more time in terms of holding the Government to account. That is the factual position, as a result of 20 hours of discussions and so forth between the Chief Whip and the Whips of the other parties and also in terms of the committee on Dáil reform. That is the mechanism we have established in terms of the committee on Dáil Reform.
Sentiment score: 0.38
I say to the Deputy, from his perspective he is not losing any time.
Sentiment score: 0.29
You are not compared to the last Dáil, you are actually gaining time and that is the bottom line here.
Sentiment score: 0.42
This was raised earlier. If you compare Dáil Éireann to any other parliament in Europe, you will find the Opposition has more time than any other Opposition in any other parliament across Europe. Certainly in terms of Prime Ministers across Europe, no Prime Minister is in parliament more than the Irish Taoiseach is in Dáil Éireann. This can be checked out and looked at in terms of other parliaments across Europe. This proposal is proportionate because it is endeavouring to give backbench TDs of the Government parties and Independent TDs an opportunity-----
Sentiment score: 0.09
-----with eight minutes on a Tuesday or on a Wednesday. All this row, about the dark days of Irish democracy, is about eight minutes extra on a Tuesday and eight minutes extra on a Wednesday-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
This apparently means we are on the brink of a terrible sort of negativity and so on.
Sentiment score: -0.75
Over the past ten years, there has been a consistent, incremental increase in time allocated to smaller groups within the Dáil and to Independents within the Dáil. There is a group on the far left that has about three or four Members with more speaking rights than other with 40 TDs or more.
Sentiment score: 0.16
That has been the reality over the past ten years.
Sentiment score: 0.00
There needs to be a degree of rebalancing.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Backbench Deputies need the opportunity to ask questions.
Sentiment score: 0.42
There is no big deal in that. It does not in any way-----
Sentiment score: -0.15
The big demand from members of the Opposition at the beginning, when we met with them, was not to lose any time. They have not lost any time.
Sentiment score: 0.22
The Opposition groups have actually gained time.
Sentiment score: 0.38
It is interesting. I made a fundamental point. When a general election happens, and the Deputy knows this because they have engaged with us at different times after different elections, Governments have to be formed.
Sentiment score: 0.27
There is the realpolitik of forming a government. Governments have to be formed.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Some people have no interest in forming a government. That is fair enough but others do. The programme for Government-----
Sentiment score: 0.12
The programme for Government is the document that binds the people who are going to support the Government together. Underlying all of this, and the Deputy said we could have brought this to an end, I actually do not believe the Opposition wants to bring this to an end.
Sentiment score: 0.20
The Opposition is enjoying it a bit for its own electoral purposes. However, I want to make this point-----
Sentiment score: 0.30
The Deputy cannot be serious. He talks about it costing our democracy. Eight minutes on a Tuesday and our democracy is gone.
Sentiment score: 0.02
Come on; it is farcical. However, in a more serious vein-----
Sentiment score: -0.08
What is really behind this, and it is very clear, is that the Opposition-----
Sentiment score: 0.44