Stagg welcomes govt decision to abandon effort to overturn Dail decision on Finance Bill
Issued : Wednesday 10 March, 2010
Statement by Emmet Stagg TD
Chief Whip
I welcome the decision of the government to abandon its attempt to overturn a decision of the Dail yesterday to accept a Labour Party amendment to the Finance Bill through a parliamentary sleight of hand.
Had the government been permitted to get away with this it would have created a hugely dangerous precedent that would have allowed a government defeated on an issue on one day in the Dail, to come back the next and seek to have it reversed?
The attempt by the government to mislead the House by having the Taoiseach read out an Order of Business, different to the one circulated in written form, was simply not acceptable and would have undermined the trust between government and opposition, without which the Dail could not function.
When the Whips met during the afternoon they understood that a formula had been agreed that would have acknowledged that the government had not wanted this amendment to be passed but respected the procedures of the Dail. This was to be done by allowing the Dail including the Labour Party amendment to proceed and go to the Seanad. The Seanad would then recommend that this amendment be reversed and it would then have had to come back to the Dail in due course for consideration where the government, with its majority, could have overturned it.
I was then very surprised to learn just before the debate resumed at 4.45 that this offer had been withdrawn. However, I welcome the subsequent intervention of the Minister for Finance, who agreed to accept in principle the Labour amendment, subject to a change in the timeframe and to allow this to be dealt with in the Seanad.
This defused a potentially very difficult situation that would have destroyed the parliamentary relationship between government and opposition and created a hugely dangerous precedent.
