The former minister for justice got the current Minister into trouble. And he didn’t even mean to do it.
Alan Shatter was taking a pot shot at the Opposition in his frustration that TDs had spent the previous hour voting on amendments from his bêtes noires, Independent TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, along with Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman Pádraig Mac Lochlainn.
In fact, throughout the day there had been 20 votes in all on the Garda Síochána (Policing Authority and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. That could be close to a record.
This piece of reforming legislation aims to establish An tÚdarás Póilíneachta (the Policing Authority) to oversee the performance of the force in relation to policing.
But 20 votes means a lot of wear and tear on TDs having to rush into the Dáil and vote and then return to their offices or wherever they may have been.
For more than an hour before the debate was adjourned, most TDs had not left the Chamber, because it was one vote after another from Opposition deputies.
There was no debate: simply “I move amendment number such and such,” on page X line Y to delete (for example) “nomination” and substitute “appointment”.
Then the vote was called.
Shatter was not impressed. “On a point of order,” he called to Leas Cheann Comhairle Micheál Kitt. “This would be impressive,” he said, “had a single member of Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil turned up on Committee stage to propose and debate the amendments that were tabled.”
Caterwaul
“That’s not a point of order,” shouted Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh. “That’s not a point of order,” echoed Billy Kelleher.
“On a point of order,” called Sinn Féin justice spokesman Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, which resulted in a caterwaul of interruptions.
Shatter held sway: “It would also have been impressive if Deputy Wallace had turned up at the start of Committee stage as well.” He proposed amending the order of business, which he couldn’t do, but no harm making the point. He wanted all the amendments in that particular grouping to be considered in a single vote “and that we bring this complete farce to an end”.
“The biggest farce here is the one standing up opposite me,” sniped Ó Snodaigh.
Shatter came back: “Are the members opposite seriously going to go before the electorate and present themselves as an alternative Government?”
They had been voting for more than an hour on votes the Opposition could not win.
“You’re not the Minister any more,” said Mac Lochlainn, and he then put the boot in.
Committee stage of the Bill had been taken over two days, he said. “This is the second day of report stage. This amounts to four separate days.”
And then he had a go at both the incumbent and the former minister. “The Minister for Justice and Equality has not shown up once over those four days,” he said, and everyone looked to the Government benches, to see that yes, Frances Fitzgerald was absent.
In fairness, she was abroad with other EU Ministers dealing with the refugee crisis.
High horse
Mac Lochlainn said the former minister “should get off his high horse and realise that in a democracy, when the Government has the contempt whereby the Minister did not show up over the four days when the Government schedules the business, we have a right, if the Government refuses to engage, to call a vote on every amendment”.
Then Mick Wallace called another vote.
