McDowell defends decision to adjourn Dáil

Tánaiste Michael McDowell defended the Government's decision to adjourn the Dáil for a week in the face of strong Opposition criticism.

He said the State had for many years taken advantage of the fact that St Patrick's Day was celebrated across the globe, in order to project the good aspects of Ireland and to avail of goodwill.

"There is an undoubted and major dividend to the economy, the State and the Irish community overseas as a result of the Government taking the St Patrick's Day festival seriously, Mr McDowell said.

"The deputies opposite will appreciate that although St Patrick's Day falls on a Saturday this year, most Ministers will be obliged to attend a number of events in the days beforehand at the locations to which they are travelling."

Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton said that when the House resumed after the break, Mr McDowell proposed to hold a five-hour debate on the Criminal Justice Bill, dealing with the right to silence, detention, bail and sentencing.

"The Dáil has learned to its cost in recent weeks of the folly of rushing through legislation and having to reconsider at length to fill loopholes created by a lack of attention to detail."

There was a huge onus on the Dáil to consider the matters in a mature way, rather than rushing into an 11th-hour action.

"Now, at five minutes to midnight in terms of the Dáil session, the Minister comes forward with his proposals. There is no point pretending to give cover to a Minister who has been inactive in some of these areas," Mr Bruton said.

Labour deputy leader Liz McManus said a raft of legislation was being guillotined because the Government was coming to the end of its term of office.

"It is not allowing proper scrutiny of legislation nor is it allowing this parliament to function effectively," she said. "It does not take a week to travel anywhere in the world today. I am not aware that it takes a week for Ministers to do their packing. They are packing the timetable with legislation which deserves to be properly analysed and scrutinised."

John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South East) said his colleague Dan Boyle had put forward proposals for reforming the House and had pointed out on numerous occasions that, as a parliament, the Dáil was unproductive and sat fewer days than other parliaments in Europe. "That needs to be rectified."

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF, Dublin South Central) said there was a range of legislation which deserved and required the House's full attention and the House should sit next week.

Mr McDowell said he had carried out some research and discovered that in one week last July, the House spent between three and four hours debating the order of business.

The Government won the vote to adjourn the Dáil until Tuesday, March 20th, by 61 votes to 34.