Dáil votes to take extra day off next week

The Dáil has voted to take an extra day off next week despite objections from Opposition parties.

TDs voted this morning in favour of adjourning the Dáil this evening until next Wednesday afternoon.

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore argued that there was “no justification” for the Dáil not sitting next Tuesday following bank holiday Monday.

“I know it has been the tradition and practice down the years that when there’s a bank holiday, the House doesn’t sit on the day after,” he said. “But these are not normal times.

“Financial markets are in a state of flux, people are still very concerned about what’s happening with the economy,” Mr Gilmore said.

He also noted that 25,000 students and pensioners were protesting yesterday over Budget proposals. To adjourn the Dáil in such circumstances was “a daft proposal”, he argued.

Fine Gael’ finance spokesman Richard Bruton agreed, saying the public “would expect that we would not be taking an extra day’s holidays next week at a time of such convulsions”.

Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said Mr Gilmore had made a “compelling argument” and called for the Dáil to resume on Tuesday.

The Government motion was passed by 67 votes to 60.