Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Report of the Committee on Procedure on the Review by the Clerk of Dáil Éireann of Electronic Voting in Dáil Éireann on Thursday 17 October 2019 laid before the House today. I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all of those involved for their speedy conclusions and presentation of those facts. The report clearly and methodically sets out clear facts. It tells us what happened and is there for every Member of the House and citizen to read and come to their own conclusions. Complaints have, I understand, been made under the Ethics in Public Office Act and it is now a matter for the Committee on Members' Interests to examine those complaints in accordance with the laws determined by these Houses. Since those deliberations might result in recommendations coming back here for us to vote on, we will be the final jury. Therefore, it would be better if we did not prejudice ourselves until we hear the results of the recommendations from the committee we have set up to do that work.

I want to echo the words of the Ceann Comhairle from earlier today. What has emerged over the past week has eroded confidence in Dáil Éireann. The so-called war of the buttons and public jousting which has gone on since has fed into a very unwelcome and unhelpful narrative regarding public confidence here. I do not underestimate the degree of public anger on this matter. Like everybody else, I have received emails from my constituents outlining how annoyed they are that such carry on could happen. The matter has also distracted from real issues of public concern such as the disturbing picture of a five year old homeless child eating his dinner off cardboard on Grafton Street, an image which captures the failure of the State to address the most serious homeless crisis we have ever faced. It detracted from the centrality that the solemn apology of the State on Tuesday for the CervicalCheck scandal should have had. All of these things were battling with this matter for airspace and public space.

The controversy began when Fianna Fáil Deputy Niall Collins cast six votes in a row for his colleague, Deputy Timmy Dooley, who had left the Chamber. That was wrong and unacceptable. Nobody in the House would, could or has tried to justify that. It is a most serious matter that goes to the heart of representative democracy and undermines the solemn duty of the mandate that each of us has when we come here. No explanation has been offered and it is up to those Deputies to explain fully their actions. I welcome Deputy Martin's statement that we will have such an explanation.

It has cast a cloud over our democratic prerogative. However, the controversy went on to expose a carelessness which has crept into our voting procedures, whereby votes were cast by proxy for Members who were present in the Chamber but not in their designated seats and did not press their assigned buttons, a practice that apparently has become accepted. It is not constitutional. This ought to be discussed as a serious matter. Instead, this week it was reduced to an intra-party slug fest. There is a danger that this debate will follow the same path.

Staff in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were apparently assigned to spend hours this week trawling through footage of the Dáil proceedings to see if they could find ammunition for a political attack. Charge was met with counter-charge. Fine Gael spotted the opportunity to wrong foot Fianna Fáil, just in case there might be an election around the corner. The Minister for Justice and Equality spoke earlier in the week of illegal acts. On "Morning Ireland" the Minister for Health quoted selectively from the Constitution, which I believe was a matter of political expediency.

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