Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McHugh is to be the new Government Chief Whip. I am sure he was listening carefully to the Taoiseach’s acceptance speech today, where he indicated quite strongly that he supports a change to the rules that apply in the House. The Taoiseach framed this as a democratic issue. The real agenda, however, was shown yesterday on the front page of the Irish Independent, which ran the headline, “Fianna Fáil deal with Leo will quieten left parties in the Dáil”. He will have a hard job doing that, but we will take it as a backhanded compliment. Those who would wish to quieten us feel we are speaking rather loudly on issues such as water charges, the eighth amendment, strikes and the housing crisis, among other things.

I would point out to the Taoiseach and the new Chief Whip that what is being raised here is the idea of tearing up a rulebook which they themselves wrote barely 12 months ago.

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