L’opposizione promette di resistere alla mossa dei diritti di lingua del Govt

The fact that this shite is still going on is ridiculous.

I would say this is a new low for our government but I’m not surprised. Hope opposition makes this as difficult for them as possible

I emailed one of my local government TDs (backbencher for FF) about this. His response is below. Lots of waffle and “but we get no time to speak cos I’m in government, it’s not fair”.

I don’t think it was right for a push to be made for certain TDs who supported Programme for Government negotiations to be given opposition speaking time. This proposal was also roundly rejected by opposition parties..

The change being proposed now is that speaking time will be re-calibrated to reflect the number of all party and non-party affiliated members of the Dáil. As a government back bencher my mandate received from the voters of the Clare Constituency is equal to every single other member of the Dáil, yet, under existing rules, my speaking time is significantly less than opposition TDs. This scenario is rather unique in Europe, where government members of parliament get to challenge the Prime Minister during question time (the House of Commons being the best example).

Under the new proposal there won’t be any reduction in opposition speaking time and it is additional speaking time that is being provided for backbenchers like me.

Some practical examples of how the government proposals would work:

•            For the next six weeks there will be 90 Priority Questions to various Ministers. Sinn Fein will have 47, Labour 13, Soc Dems 12, etc. But if we don’t amend standing orders, none of the 53 back benchers or the other 7 TDs would have an opportunity to ask a Priority Question. What has been proposed is one additional priority question for PQs – that’s six mins additional time – so that back benchers, like me are included. Again no opposition member will lose any time should this proposal be adopted.

•            Currently Private Members Business (PMB) is taken twice a week in the Dáil. 120 mins of Dáil time is allotted. Government Ministers get 20 mins. Opposition members have 100 mins. Under current arrangements no backbenchers e are allowed to speak. This is fundamentally unfair. The Chief Whip is proposing a Sessional Order to change Speaking arrangements for Private Members’ time, to provide additional time for backbenchers.

•            Leaders Questions will continue to be questions from leaders of opposition parties/groupings and the Government is not trying to change that in any way / reduce the time for these questions. What is being proposed is an additional item on the agenda – ‘Other Members Questions’ allowing backbenchers to ask a question.

Unfortunately, the entire media focus is on ONE MAN – Michael Lowry when the truth is 53 TDs (I am one of them) have currently no speaking rights relating to all of the above. The change will give us a voice and yet we will be vying (via a weekly question selection lottery) for a share of a total 23 minutes per week.

I hope that you took the time to read this email in full because it merits explaining and the proposal now is entirely different to what was being suggested 5 weeks ago.

RTÉ tone on this a disgrace.