Dáil adjourns as rowdy scenes erupt over speaking rights

The government has won a Dáil (Irish parliament) vote to amend speaking rights by a margin of 93 to 74.

Speaker Verona Murphy demanded respect from TDs following many disruptions to Tuesday's proceedings.

Verona Murphy TD told opposition TDs their behaviour was "an absolute disgrace" with proceedings having to be halted for a time.

The Dáil has since been adjourned for the day after continuing chaotic scenes of shouting and heckling following the vote.

A row around the issue has been festering in the Irish parliament for more than two months since four members of a government supporting independent bloc demanded speaking rights to question the government.

The government has drawn up plans to facilitate the four TDs whose colleagues are part of the coalition government.

The coalition says the new proposal will also benefit other government backbench TDs who, it says, are entitled to raise questions with the government on behalf of their constituents.

Opposition TDs have united to vehemently resist the move.

During Tuesday's proceedings, the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald accused the taoiseach of "stroke" politics which, she said, was unlike anything witnessed in the Dáil previously.

McDonald also referred to one of the four independent TDs, Michael Lowry, and asked the taoiseach: "What does Michael Lowry have over you?"

The taoiseach accused McDonald and other opposition leaders of manufacturing a controversy around the issue.

As the rowdy scenes continued in the Dáil this afternoon, the Ceann Comhairle (speaker) told TDs that they were failing to show respect to the chair and added: "You are making an absolute holy show of yourselves."

While Verona Murphy attempted to bring order to the proceedings, she referred to "misogyny" before suspending the afternoon sitting for a time.

Speaking outside Leinster House after the vote, McDonald said the government "does not wish to be held to rigorous account".

She said that for democracy and the Dáil to work, there "has to be clear distinctions between the democratic roles of a government and of opposition".

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said it was "difficult" to maintain confidence in the Ceann Comhairle.

She said: "We were particularly dismayed and disappointed to see the Ceann Comhairle moving to push through the order of business and ignoring the calls of dissent that were clearly being registered by members of the opposition."

The row about speaking rights has rumbled on in the Dáil since before the new Irish government took office.

Following the general election Fianna Fáil won 48 seats while Sinn Féin was second with 39 and Fine Gael was third with 38 seats.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael wanted to return to government together but needed to seek the support of a small number of independent TDs to get to the 88 seats needed for a majority.

The TDs in question came from two cohorts - a group of regional independents, led by Tipperary's Michael Lowry, and two brothers who are also independents - Michael and Danny Healy-Rea from County Kerry.

Following government formation talks, a member of the group of regional independents, Verona Murphy, was appointed as Ceann Comhairle (Speaker), with government support.

Some other members of the same group, as well as Michael Healy-Rea, were subsequently appointed as junior ministers in the new government.

This was all agreed in return for their support, and that of their independent colleagues, in crucial Dáil votes during the lifetime of the new government.

In other words, they were all in it together - the independent TDs who got ministries and their colleagues who remained on the backbenches.

Ordinarily, this would all seem pretty straight forward - they are all on board with the new government.

But a problem arose when the four government-supporting independent members who didn't get big jobs and remained as backbenchers effectively declared that they did not regard themselves as being part of the government.

The TDs - Michael Lowry, Danny Healy-Rae, Barry Heneghan and Gillian Toole - took this position even though they would be voting with the government in return for their colleagues getting the positions of Ceann Comhairle and junior ministries.

Essentially, they wanted to form a Dáil technical group, to be able to ask questions of the government just like opposition TDs.

However, technical groups have historically always been made up of opposition TDs, with the rules of the Dáil (Standing Orders) stating that they must be.

The government says it wants to "modernise" those rules.

The combined opposition parties were indignant when they heard of the plan.

They were, and remain, furious that these four government-supporting backbench TDs wanted speaking rights similar to those normally reserved for the opposition.

In an attempt to resolve the issue, parties agreed to form a Dáil reform committee and voted to allow new speaking slots for those independent members who support the government.

However, opposition parties - including Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and Independent Ireland - labelled the meeting as "disgraceful".

In a joint statement, opposition parties said it was "another cynical attempt to manipulate speaking time in order to grant special privileges to TDs who were part of negotiating the programme for government and clearly and unambiguously support the government".