Ireland’s main opposition parties have rejected claims that they had “reneged” on a deal with Government over a speaking rights row that prevented the nomination of a new taoiseach.
The Irish parliament failed to nominate a new taoiseach on Wednesday after what Government officials described as “unprecedented” scenes of disruption.
Opposition figures objected to the Government’s attempts to proceed with the business of the Dail over a dispute around speaking rights.
The central question is whether independents who have agreed to support the proposed Government can be allocated opposition speaking time.
It comes after several independent TDs agreed to enter into a Government with the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties.
Some of those independents are to be given jobs as Ministers of State while the remainder want to join a “technical group”, which is a mechanism designed to allow opposition TDs to sit in groupings of at least five members to gain an allocation of speaking time.
This has been categorically rejected by opposition parties who feel that the independents in question are effectively Government TDs and should be allocated time through the Government Chief Whip.
The Government and independents in question have argued that the existing parliamentary standing orders allow for them to join technical groups, adding that the rules can only be changed through a Dail Reform Committee which would require a new Government to be formed.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald called the claim that you can be in government and in opposition at the same time “a clear and patent absurdity”.
Speaking to the media alongside the leaders of the other main opposition parties in a rare show of unity, she said the dispute was “farcical” but added that it was “mess created by Government”.
She said: “This is not simply about speaking time, this is about the definition of the opposition. This is about the capacity and the mechanisms for holding the government to account.
“You cannot have government supporting TDs posturing as members of the opposition, that makes a farce of the whole notion of holding a government to account.
“This is an important matter. We would not be standing here collectively but for the fact that this is absolutely fundamental and we have to get it right from the get go.”
Senior Government and opposition figures met during an hours-long suspension of the Dail on Wednesday in an effort to resolve the dispute, however the talks concluded in a stalemate.
The two sides remained entirely at odds on Wednesday evening with the heavily divided Dail due to resume on Thursday morning.
Ms McDonald said: “We are united in our position that the Government cannot contrive to have Government TDs designated as members of the opposition.”
She accused the Government of “incredible arrogance” in trying to “ride roughshod over the collective opposition” and said they would be “failing the democratic process” if they did not take a firm stance on the row over opposition speaking time.
The Government Chief Whip, Fine Gael TD Hildegarde Naughton, claimed Sinn Fein had blocked the democratic process.
Ms Naughton also told reporters that opposition parties had reneged on an agreement.
She said: “There was an agreement made that we would allow the democratic process to continue so opposition could have come into the Dail and voted down or voted against Government – which is how democracy works, you have a strong opposition, you have government – we agreed that, we shook hands on it, and they reneged on it.”
She added: “We understand democracy, but I don’t think Sinn Fein and some of the others in opposition do, it is absolutely anti-democratic, and we’re in a really shameful position tonight.”
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said there had been an attempt to stop Mr Martin being nominated as taoiseach.
However, opposition leaders rejected claims that a deal had been agreed and denied their actions had anything to do with preventing Mr Martin from becoming taosieach.
Ms McDonald said it was “not true” that there were handshakes on a resolution on the dispute, adding: “There was no agreement reached, that’s a misrepresentation.”
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that while the opposition parties had their differences, they agreed they could not agree to a situation where TDs that agreed a programme for government were treated as part of the opposition.
She said: “We simply cannot stand over a situation where those TDs who are actively engaged in supporting and constructing a programme for government can somehow also be designated as opposition TDs. It’s simply not tenable. It’s a chaotic situation.”
Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan added: “What happened at all today should never have happened, it should never have come to this.”
Independent Ireland’s Michael Collins argued that “the very word democracy is at question here”.
“[The regional independents] want their bread buttered on both ends, and it can’t work,” he added.
Solidarity-People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett said Mr Harris and Mr Martin were allowing the Government-supporting independents to “sabotage the democratic process”.
“It doesn’t only undermine the opposition, it makes a mockery of the government themselves,” he said.
The opposition leaders said they would collectively write to the Ceann Comhairle and Government leaders seeking a meeting to resolve the matter.
Mr Martin said the Government parties were “prepared to work on” opposition concerns over the speaking rights row.