EAMON DE STAIC,
Madam, - If the true target of the Labour Party's current endeavours is indeed our "discredited and dishonest right-wing Government", as Labour whip Emmet Stagg stated on this page last Saturday, surely the party has scored an unforgivable own goal by allowing the Teflon Taoiseach added opportunity to avoid public scrutiny. It seems to me, however, that Labour's main target of late is in fact the emerging alternative to "establishment politics" represented by the new Technical Group; and by slinging mud at these assorted mavericks Mr Stagg only to reinforces this opinion. I had hoped that the creation of an additional political entity to probe the Taoiseach and his Ministers would help increase transparency in Government - and perhaps it will eventually - but the advantage has certainly been somewhat blunted by the passage, with Labour's support, of the recent Dáil Bill.
Perhaps if Mr Stagg, and indeed the new Labour leader, Mr Rabbitte, had genuinely admired "Mr Gormley's wish to be inclusive", they might have reciprocated it by accepting, in the spirit of democracy, a new order in Dáil questions.
I had almost imagined some of Labour's rhetorical heavyweights relishing the opportunity to come in with the final, flamboyant pounding of floundering Ministers after they'd been softened up by novices, but alas it was not to be. Instead we find our political system divided further by pride and egotism, and more is the pity. - Is mise,
EAMON DE STAIC,
Shrule,
Co Mayo.
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Madam, - Emmet Stagg, who as Labour Chief Whip was the conduit through which the Labour Party arranged its deal with Fianna Fáil, is clearly still suffering from the after effects of what was for Labour a serious miscalculation and an unnecessary PR disaster (November 2nd).
The party which had been to the forefront in demanding the reform of Dáil procedures and greater accountability in one fell swoop reduced the limited weekly accountability of the Taiseach by a third.
In a series of distortions Mr Stagg seeks to divert attention from the long-term damage done to parliamentary accountability by his own actions and that of his party.
He refers to Mr Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, TD, as "the political and ideological leader of the Technical Group" in a puerile attempt to embarrass the Greens and Independents, but also as a cover for his own error in failing to negotiate with the group in advance of Labour's outright capitulation to Fianna Fáil. This simply confirms that Stagg was himself the main architect of Labour's debacle which restricts the Taoiseach's accountability to Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings.
Next Stagg plays his trump card in a classic diversion and smear rolled into one by suggesting that Michael Lowry was taken on board to "upstage the Labour Party in Dáil debates".
The fact is, as Mr Stagg well knows, that a majority of Independents formed their own group immediately after the general election. No Independent was excluded since the group itself was formed to facilitate inclusion.
That group of 10 Independents plus Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party was in place for months attempting to get recognition in its own right as a parliamentary group.
When recognition was refused it joined with Sinn Féin and the Greens to form the Technical Group. Together they already outnumbered Labour. No one was "actively" recruited by Tony Gregory or anyone else.
Labour, instead of consulting the Technical Group, simply panicked and surrendered to the outrageous demands of Fianna Fáil.
The final falsehood is Mr Stagg's assertion that the Technical Group is "less willing to do the routine parliamentary business". The fact is that the Technical Group has filled every speaking slot available to it in every debate since it was formed. This was a significant achievement since a majority of its members are new TDs.
While I accept Labour's belated recognition that the target should be the Fianna Fáil Government, a united opposition is unlikely to be achieved by the petty, politically motivated distortions and smears penned by Emmet Stagg in a vain attempt to cloud the central issue: at the very beginning of a five year Dáil term which will see great public demand for accountability, the Labour Party has seriously undermined the ability of the Dáil to achieve that objective. - Yours, etc.,
FINIAN McGRATH, TD,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.