Dail returns to usual business after speaking time row resolved

Politicians focused on Storm Eowyn, Donald Trump and the housing crisis as the Irish parliament returned to normality after a disruptive row over speaking time.

The opposition – who won the bitter dispute after the Speaker of the Dail weighed in – criticised the Government over house-building claims and its efforts to restore power to 700,000 customers after Storm Eowyn.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald accused Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris of an “election ploy” when they had claimed around 40,000 homes would be built last year, when the final figure was just over 30,000.

Irish premier Micheal Martin said he was “disappointed” with the number of houses built last year but said the 40,000 projection was a genuinely held belief at the time.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik was critical as she raised in the Dail the response to the storm, saying wakes had to be held by candlelight, parents were unable to cook for their children and the elderly left “terrified” by power outages.

Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said Energy and Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien should answer questions from the Dail over the storm response.

Mr Martin said he believed an agreement had been reached to hold a Dail debate on the storm.

“I hope we’re not now going to begin a new Dail season where things get agreed in the business committee, and 24 hours later there are objections to what was agreed,” the Taoiseach said, referencing the speaking time row.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said they wanted time to debate government roles.

A record 23 junior ministers were appointed – up from 20 in the last government – and a legal challenge has been launched at the constitutionality of four ‘super’ junior ministers.

“The Fianna Fail-Fine Gael and so-called independents’ gravy train has arrived in the form of the Ministers and Secretaries Bill to give more jobs, more allowances, more ministries, to spread out the spoils of an election,” Mr Boyd Barrett told TDs.

“It is really blatant and outrageous, and you’re not even proposing that there would be a debate on it.

“So this is not a particularly good sign of where this Government is heading.

“We tried strokes last week to steal opposition time, now we’re going to loot the public purse with new allowances, new ministries that quite possibly are in breach of the Constitution.”

The return to the usual Dail business comes two weeks after the opposition disrupted the nomination of Mr Martin as Taoiseach in a protest over speaking time.

Government-affiliated independents had requested to form a technical group, which would have given them speaking slots during opposition time.

Of the nine independents involved in government formation talks with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael – seven from the Regional Independent Group and two Kerry brothers Michael and Danny Healy-Rae – five are ministers of state.

Four other independents – Michael Lowry, Gillian Toole, Barry Heneghan and Danny Healy-Rae – wanted to be part of a technical group.

On Monday night, Verona Murphy, the Ceann Comhairle (speaker), decided that statements from Mr Lowry and Mr Healy-Rae were “extremely difficult to reconcile with a reasonable interpretation in plain English of the term ‘in opposition'”.

The Government said it accepted Ms Murphy’s recommendation, while Chief Whip Mary Butler said the Dail could now resume and “begin addressing issues that the country wants their public representatives to be debating, namely the aftermath of Storm Eowyn”.

Mr Lowry, who led the Regional Independents in government formation talks, and who Ms Murphy credited as suggesting her for the role of Ceann Comhairle, said he was “not surprised” by her decision.

But he called for reform of Dail rules to allow for independent TDs who are supportive of the Government.

Two proposals were brought to Cabinet, one to establish a consultative trade forum in Ireland chaired by the Tanaiste, and another to establish a strategic advisory group of businesses in the US with Irish connections.

It comes as US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the EU and suggested creating a US-owned Gaza Strip that he said would be a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Mr Harris said the comments were “very concerning” and that Ireland and the EU believed a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine “must be the landing zone”.

The Social Democrats said that if Mr Trump continued with such policy stances on Gaza, they would not support the Taoiseach visiting the White House in March for St Patrick’s Day.