Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

According to Standing Orders, you, a Cheann Comhairle, are the person who has discretion in this matter, to allow Leaders' Questions or not. Standing Orders specifically state that, at the commencement of public business on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the Ceann Comhairle may permit, at his or her discretion, a brief question not exceeding two minutes from each leader in Opposition to the Taoiseach about a matter of topical public importance and in respect of which certain arrangements shall apply.

A Cheann Comhairle, I challenge your interpretation that we agreed this approach last week. We did not agree this last week, and there was a vote on it. The impact of that vote was that there is no Leaders' Questions, no oral questions, no Order of Business, no Adjournment Debate, no votes and no accountability to the Dáil by the Government. You are aware, a Cheann Comhairle, that Article 28.4.1° of the Constitution requires that the Government be accountable to Dáil Éireann. How is the Government being accountable to Dáil Éireann today?

I challenge your interpretation, a Cheann Comhairle, on a number of grounds. In previous times when a Deputy was suspended, the first item on the agenda for the following day's business or the following week's business was a vote to remove the Deputy in question. You suspended Deputy Bernard Durkan last week. There is no vote on his suspension, as was always the case in accordance with precedent. The motion that was rammed through last week specifically in respect of Standing Order 27 allows at your discretion the taking of Leaders' Questions in the House today. I put it to you, a Cheann Comhairle, that you should use your discretion because since we met in the House last week with some acrimony, things have happened in this country that are of the most serious and sensitive import that require your discretion to allow Leaders' Questions today. I want to be able to ask the Taoiseach about the number now on the live register, which demonstrates the unemployment rate has risen to a record level. I want to ask the Taoiseach why, on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend, the Health Service Executive released figures to the effect that 188 children died while in the care of this State. The Ceann Comhairle, with his discretion, knows this is a matter of most serious importance. It is even more significant than one might imagine considering that we heard two mothers speak on national radio stations today and yesterday about their children, who are alive, healthy and well - thanks be to God-----

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