Gormley in hiding during crucial debate, claims Shatter

THE ABSENCE of Minister for the Environment John Gormley from the Dáil for an emergency debate on the High Court byelection ruling, drew trenchant Opposition criticism.

Mr Gormley, who attended in the chamber immediately afterwards to introduce legislation for direct mayoral elections, insisted however that the writ for Donegal South West byelection “must be moved by the Government Chief Whip. That is a fact.” The Opposition had called for a special debate on the High Court judgment and directed their questions to the Minister “in his capacity as overseeing electoral law”.

The debate was taken by Government Chief Whip John Curran who acknowledged that “while these private notice questions are addressed to the Minister for the Environment, I have dealt with this issue before in the chamber and in that context I was asked to do this”.

When Mr Gormley appeared in the chamber, Fine Gael justice spokesman Alan Shatter said the Minister “has shown total contempt for this House”. He claimed Mr Gormley was “hiding outside the door, frightened to come in to address an issue within his area of ministerial responsibility”.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín O Caoláin asked “what in heaven’s name prevented the Minister from coming to the House to address the Donegal South West byelection issue”.

Mr Gormley told him that the writ had to be moved by the Chief Whip and he was the “most appropriate person to respond to the debate on this occasion”.

Mr Curran said the emergency debate was “premature” and the Cabinet was discussing it “in a timely manner several hours after the court” hearing.

Mr Shatter asked: “What is in the gene pool of the Green Party that enabled its parliamentary party members to digest this judgment within a sufficient time to do their traditional dance on the plinth of Leinster House and to shoot off in two opposite directions simultaneously. He said, first that there should be a byelection straight away. Second, that there should be an appeal. These conclusions are contradictory but that does not seem to bother the Green Party.”

Earlier in the Dáil in the wake of the High Court ruling that there had been an unreasonable delay in holding the Donegal South West byelection, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the Government would “have to consider the judgment and its implications”.

Mr Cowen said “this judgment has arisen since proceedings began this morning” and any “further comment prior to this consideration” by Government would be premature.

Sinn Féin North Kerry TD Martin Ferris said the Government had been found “guilty” of depriving the people of Donegal South West of their constitutional rights and he called on the Government to move the writ.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny had asked the Taoiseach if he was “going to sit over there and hang on and attempt to stay in power when the High Court in the land says it is unreasonable to have a delay of this length”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said: “The only reason that these byelections haven’t been held is that the present Government is using a flaky majority which is based on a reduced number of members of this House in order to stop holding the byelections so that they can stay in office.”

But Mr Cowen said: “If you don’t mind, I’d like the opportunity to read the judgment and have the Government consider the judgment. That’s only fair.”