CEANN COMHAIRLE Verona Murphy faces a difficult day ahead as opposition leaders vow to tell the Dáil at midday today that they no longer have confidence in her. Party leaders met this morning to discuss their plan of action.
The move will likely trigger a formal no confidence vote following a period of consultation with the respective parties’ membership base.
The decision follows yesterday’s dramatic vote in the Dáil to allocate new speaking slots to regional independent TDs and coalition backbenchers, which has been the basis of a bitter row with the Government since January.
The Ceann Comhairle came under fire after she said that opposition TDs were not showing due deference for the Chair. Opposition leaders quickly countered that Ms. Murphy was not being impartial in her approach to proceedings.
In the aftermath of yesterday’s chaos, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme that she would find it difficult to maintain confidence in the Ceann Comhairle’s future impartiality when it came to other issues.
Ms. Bacik said that the Government’s decision to award allocated speaking slots to members of its own backbench would seriously undermine the opposition’s ability to hold them to account. She pointed to the fact that the speaking rights issue has united all opposition leaders despite their fundamental differences over policy.
The Labour Party leader said that the Ceann Comhairle’s approach made it seem as though she was ‘steamrolling through business’ which went against her role as an impartial mediator in the chamber.
Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn echoed Ms. Bacik’s sentiments, saying that Ms. Murphy’s approach drove a bulldozer through Dáil protocol. Many TDs were also unsatisfied with the way in which the house was adjourned shortly after the vote’s conclusion.
An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the Opposition was guilty of bullying and intimidation of the Ceann Comhairle. “The prolonged barracking and the disgraceful lack of respect for the mandates of elected deputies was shocking in its intensity,” Mr. Martin said.