Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Labour Party has long argued that the summer recess is far too long. Against the background of the current situation in which the country finds itself, namely, the economic challenges we face, the fact that unemployment has now reached more than 200,000, an 8% increase in food prices in the past year, record high prices for petrol and diesel and associated problems of fuel poverty, the public will find it impossible to understand how the Government could consider shutting down the House for 11 or 12 weeks.

As I pointed out last night, this Dáil sits for far fewer days than most national parliaments. By comparison, the House of Commons sits for more than 130 days and the US Congress sits for almost 160 days while the Dáil sits for just over 90 days in plenary session. We do not need to make international comparisons to make the case for longer Dáil sittings and to oppose the closing down of our national Parliament for three months in the middle of the year. We need go no further than our Constitution, Article 28.4.1 of which states that the Government shall be responsible to Dáil Éireann. However, the Dáil can only fulfil its constitutional duty of holding the Government to account if it is in session.

Fianna Fáil Ministers in particular, many of them now in office for 11 years, appear more resentful each day at having to come into the House to answer questions and to account for their decisions, actions and lack of action. They seek all of the time to minimise the number of Dáil sitting days and to maximise the recesses. When the House elects a Taoiseach and transfers from this House, the national Parliament, executive authority for the running of the State, it is not implied that the Government can use its position and its majority to effectively suppress the role of our national Parliament in defiance of the Constitution.

The issue of the number of days which the Dáil sits and the capacity of the national Parliament to hold the Government to account is not a political issue and it does not relate to matters requiring to be addressed this year and next year. This issue goes to the heart of our Constitution. Many people have commented on the number of tribunals established over the past two decades. We will find again and again that these tribunals were set up because the role of the national Parliament, Dáil Éireann, has been suppressed and over-ridden by the Executive. This is happening in respect of issues such as the behaviour and performance of the Garda Síochána in certain parts of the country, the conduct of political leaders or the failure of some areas of our public services to deliver to the public.

Elected representatives of the people are being denied their right under the Constitution to hold Government to account. It is repeatedly denied to us by Government in a range of ways, including, for example, in respect of the manner in which questions are transferred and unanswered and by the establishment of bodies which relieve Ministers of their obligation to answer questions in this House. Above all, it is being denied to us through the shutting down by Government of the national Parliament for three months. That is not constitutional. Government is abusing its majority and its Executive role by coming into this House year after year and effectively closing down the national Parliament, denying Members their constitutional role.

The Government in addressing the economic situation during the next three months — it has the figures and knows the state of the Irish economy and public finances — will consider where cuts will be made, what services will or will not be provided, what schools will be built and what hospital projects will go ahead. It will make those decisions in the absence of its requirement to account to Dáil Éireann as provided for in the Constitution. The constitutional role and responsibility of Dáil Éireann is being denied and frustrated by a Government that does not wish to appear to account. This is an issue about our Constitution. It is about defending the constitutional rights, role and responsibility of the national Parliament. I call on every individual Member of Dáil Éireann on this occasion not to answer the drum of the Whip but to answer the call of the people who sent them here and to assert their constitutional right to have the Government account to this House in July and September and over the summer months, at least for a year, when we have serious problems to address.

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