Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There has been a halving of Taoiseach's Questions, a halving of the Order of Business and extra time for a special group, the Michael Lowry group. I remind the House that the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste took the decision to ram through last week's discussion without debate. Michael Lowry, a taker of bribes and of workers' money, is welcomed back into government. Let us be clear as to what the deal was. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael could not bring him into the Government because that would be a step too far. That would be the Rubicon crossed. Michael Lowry therefore insisted on getting this special arrangement of Leaders' Questions, the office of Ceann Comhairle and the other lot as special Ministers of State. Intellectually, he towers over some of them, so I assume that is why that deal was done.

I see this as part of a process that is happening in Europe. It is not accidental that the Taoiseach talked about the difficult times we are heading into. There was a lot of hyperbole about arson and so on, but it is the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil who have taken this decision to change standing orders to quell the Opposition. Let us be clear: there have been two days when the Dáil was disrupted. The way Government Deputies are going on, one would think it is every day of the week. The rest of the days have been padded out with irrelevant statements on things like diversion of youth from crime, to be taken this week, not tariffs, not Ukraine, not Palestine, not any of the pressing issues Government Deputies claim to want discussed.

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