Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

What happened in the Dáil yesterday is without precedent. Yesterday, the Taoiseach and his Government rammed through a scheme to create a sort of new sham Opposition. Let us be clear: the so-called "Other Members' Questions" is a contrivance manufactured purely to placate the Lowry lobby. The regional Independent group, led by Deputy Michael Lowry, is patently stitched into this Government. It helped to construct the programme for Government and some of its members are now Ministers of State. However, it now seems they are to be designated as Opposition in all but name. What does that mean? It means the Standing Orders of our national Parliament have been rearranged in the service of cute hoorism, a grubby stroke driven by the Taoiseach and his Government. In every sense, two fingers have been shown to the Opposition and to the people of this country, because as of yesterday a fundamental principle has been subverted. That is the simple truth that you cannot be in government and in opposition at the same time. The Taoiseach subverted that fundamental principle of the separation of powers.

What happened yesterday is a disgrace. Throughout my career, I have been proud to work constructively and collaboratively across party lines. My colleagues here beside me on the Labour Party benches are the same. This is the Labour Party that I lead. We want to use our voices in the Dáil to represent our communities, to raise the issues that matter to the communities we represent, who are concerned about the housing crisis, the climate catastrophe, disability rights, Trump's threatened tariffs, yes, and of course hideous global conflict. These are the matters we should all be focusing on. That is why we in the Labour Party worked hard over recent weeks, with others, to try to achieve a resolution and to avoid the farce that unfolded yesterday. We tried to work with the Taoiseach and his Fine Gael colleagues to secure a resolution that would be agreeable to Government and Opposition TDs. Indeed, that was in the terms of the agreement made and read out by Hildegarde Naughton in this House on 23 January. Instead of respecting the Opposition's constitutional duty to hold the Government to account, and instead of honouring that agreement to make a compromise, an agreement that was made in good faith, the Taoiseach arrogantly ploughed on. He has undermined basic standards of parliamentary accountability.

This affair has tarnished the Taoiseach and his Government, and now it has tarnished the office of Ceann Comhairle. A Cheann Comhairle, yesterday you deemed the Order of Business passed, despite resounding calls of dissent from the Opposition benches. Without any legitimate democratic basis, you deemed that passed. You did so apparently as part of a prearranged set-up orchestrated with the Government.

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