Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I rise to my feet to express confidence in the Ceann Comhairle, I reflect on 106 years of Dáil Eireann, during that time from its first sitting on 21 January 1919, with the revolutionary Irish Republic being formed with some of its Members still in prison, to 9 March 1932 when we had that first changeover of power between two parties, when reportedly some Members of this House carried weapons into the Dáil Chamber only for W. T. Cosgrave to intervene and ensure a peaceful passing over of power.

This House has seen many crises, from the Emergency in the Second World War - it sat throughout all of those times - to the oil crisis in the 1970s, the emigration crisis of the 1980s, the Troubles in the North throughout all those generations and the havoc it wreaked on our country, the economic crisis of 2008 and, more recently, Brexit in 2016, the pandemic in 2020 when we had to cross the River Liffey to go over to the convention centre to continue this work of Parliament, and the Ukrainian crisis of 2022 with the illegal invasion and cost-of-living crisis that came from that. Tomorrow, we face another big challenge. Thousands of workers around the country right now are driving home from work worried about whether they will still have a job in the weeks and months ahead. They are worried about what might happen with the cost of living depending on what comes out or what decisions are announced by the US and what response comes from the EU. In all of the big things that have happened in the Dáil, never was a majority Government blocked from being formed like what happened here on 22 January. Never before did we have a day like today where we had a vote of no confidence in the Ceann Comhairle.

On reflecting on all of this and on the issue at hand, the one thing that strikes me is the complete lack of proportionality from the Opposition on this issue. The response has been disproportionate to the issue at hand when we consider the history of this House and all that has happened here before.

I ask for the Opposition to accept the democratic vote that will happen in this House today. The reason there is a motion of confidence in the Ceann Comhairle is because the Opposition had problems with how she called a vote last week, a vote that was an orchestrated attempt to not allow her to call it. I saw contrived attempts, led by Sinn Féin and others, to shout her down. I ask the Opposition to accept the democratic vote and let us get on with the work and business of this Parliament. Let us form our Oireachtas committees and let us have an end to the coalition of chaos from the Opposition.

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