Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The credibility of this House, and of politics generally, has been seriously called into question by the "votegate" and "fobgate" scandals. Something that gives rise to even more serious questions about the goings on in this House is that more than 50 Opposition Bills passed by a majority of Dáil Éireann, in some cases more than once, have been blocked, effectively sabotaged, by the use of the money message. People Before Profit and Solidarity have time to put forward motions. We have that time very rarely and the next occasion on which we will have it will be tomorrow. Some 11 days ago, we submitted a motion to change Standing Orders, the rules of this House, in order to remove this blockage in respect of all the Bills to which I refer and allow them to continue their passage through the House. Last night, however, we received a letter from the Ceann Comhairle in which it is stated that we would not even be allowed to have our motion put on the Order Paper, never mind having it debated or voted upon.

The Constitution states, "each House shall make its own rules and Standing Orders". We are allowed - and it is one of the few things it seems we are allowed to do in this House - to put forward motions to change our own rules. We have put forward a motion to change the rules regarding money messages. In that motion, we made it absolutely clear that we respect the constitutional provision that prevents Opposition Deputies, anybody but the Government, proposing a Bill seeking to appropriate or spend public money. That is stated in the motion. The motion also states that other Bills that do not involve the spending of public money or any attempt to seek to tax anybody should not be blocked by the money-message procedure and that the rules should be changed accordingly.

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