Second attempt to elect Martin as Taoiseach after day of political pandemonium

Last night, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Irish Examiner that she was “brokering peace”, however, others in the Opposition said they would be “standing firm” and refused to rule out another day of disruption as the dispute over Dáil speaking time remained deadlocked.

Anger and dissatisfaction, which quickly spiralled into pandemonium, centred around a decision to allow members of the Regional Independents and Danny Healy Rae to form a technical group in order to gain Opposition speaking time despite supporting the government and helping to formulate the programme for government.

The opposition also vented anger about the fact the Dáil will not sit for two weeks after Mr Martin’s appointment.

Ms McDonald accused the Government of trying to “ride roughshod over the collective opposition” and said they would be “failing the democratic process” if they did not take a firm stance on the row over Opposition speaking time.

Dáil proceedings began at 11am with opposition TDs immediately standing up to voice criticisms, but this descended into tumultuous scenes, with heckling drowning out the Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy, who was forced to suspend the Dáil for the first time after just 20 minutes as calls for order were ignored.

The sitting was suspended for a second time within minutes of the TDs taking their seats amid calls for Ms Murphy to publish the legal advice she received on the Dáil speaking time issue.

By lunchtime, the Dáil had been suspended for a third time to facilitate a meeting of the Business Committee in the hopes of reaching an agreement to allow the day’s business to resume.

Following a number of meetings between the whips, the opposition as a group had agreed to move forward on the basis that members of the Regional Independent Group did not get speaking time. However, it is understood the Tipperary Independent Michael Lowry refused to agree to this.

An attempt was made by Verona Murphy to proceed with the nominations for Taoiseach but as Fianna Fáil’s youngest TD Albert Dolan got to his feet to deliver his speech, a loud chorus of opposition TDs again disrupted proceeds.

It was at this point that Ms Murphy took the decision to adjourn the Dáil for the day.

Afterwards, Mr Martin hit out at Sinn Féin, saying: “What we witnessed today was the subversion of the Irish Constitution. The most fundamental obligation of the Dáil is to elect a Taoiseach and indeed to elect a Government.

“That opportunity was denied today by a premeditated, coordinated, and choreographed position.”

Describing the day as “stunt politics on speed”, Mr Harris said that the scenes in the Dáil were “utterly farcical”, while highlighting that there were a majority of democratically elected TDs prepared to elect a new government.

Instead, what we saw was an effort to obstruct, an effort to shout down, an effort to disrespect the Ceann Comhairle and her constitutional office.

“It was only one leader who spoke, and she [Mary Lou McDonald] spoke with one purpose and one purpose only, to stop a government being formed, to stop a Taoiseach being elected,” Mr Harris said.

The leaders of Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, Independent Ireland, and People Before Profit last night jointly wrote to Micheál Martin and Simon Harris to demand clarity on where the speaking time given to TDs who support the programme for government will come from.

Ms McDonald said: “We will stand firm collectively in saying to the government that we want clarity now, from this moment, that those TDs that back the government, that have been part of the programme for government crafting, are government TDs. It’s as simple as that.”