Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I second the amendment that the Dáil should resume on 13 September. It is very difficult to justify anything else to the public. It is impossible to justify three months' absence from plenary session of the Dáil. Outside it is not understood that it is the Government and not the Dáil or the Oireachtas that makes the decision to put the House into recess for three months. It is impossible to justify other than the compulsion on the Government to stay out and escape from the House to avoid accountability and engage in what will be a futile attempt to refurbish its battered and bedraggled image in the three months ahead. It is unlikely that a cynical Fr. Healy-type stroke can be repeated this summer; that conversion has worn off.

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