Micheál Martin

-----and the attack on the Ceann Comhairle are very much part of a pattern where extreme parties have sought to undermine public faith in the idea that anything can be achieved. The one consistent message from every country is to stand firmly against this behaviour. If it is accepted as normal, it will be destructive of parliamentary democracy. This Dáil is still in its relatively early stages. O…

We do not have the time to waste on this effort to remove the Ceann Comhairle because she would not bow down before an Opposition which demands that the minority have the right to veto our business. This attempt at what I would say is a strategy of aggression and disruption will fail. Those of us on this side are willing to make this Dáil work. There has to be a will on all sides to make it work.

The Government is up for doing that and will work day and night to make it happen. We will then be able to get on with doing the people's business.

Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím in aon chor leis an Teachta. Is dóigh liom nach bhfuil sí ag insint na fírinne in aon chor sa mhéid a dúirt sí faoin Chief Whip. At the outset I wish to say that before this Dáil was convened, we were told - in no uncertain manner - that we faced a new era of total opposition. That was the Sinn Féin promise. When we met to fulfil our constitutional duty to appoint the Go…

In this case, what we have is the profoundly antidemocratic demand that non-office holders be kept quiet if they support the Government.

Yesterday, a number of Opposition spokespeople claimed no other country in the world would do this. It is a sad commentary on their approach that they would use such inflated language to make provably false claims. A basic review of democratic parliaments around the world shows that Ireland may in fact be the only one which refuses to allow Government-supporting TDs to ask priority oral questions…

To give just a few examples; in Germany all non-Ministers have access to oral questions.

The same is the case in France-----

-----Finland and the Netherlands.

I did not interrupt.

In Australia, the practice is Government MPs get to ask half of all questions to the Prime Minister. In Sweden, the Prime Minister answers oral questions on alternate months and all MPs can participate.

Deputy McDonald and Sinn Féin are not defending any democratic principle.

You are promoting a destructive model of opposition.

It is one which tries to import into this Chamber the loud hailer politics of the street, which many of you prefer to doing the business of the people and respecting all mandates. We have very serious issues facing this country. Next week, tariffs will be announced on Europe.

We have a housing crisis-----

-----yet this is the number one issue for Sinn Féin. It is what you have always done. You brought down the Northern Ireland Assembly when it suited you and the party's self-interest on a number of occasions.

Your stated objective here is to undermine this institution, to undermine the Government, to reduce the Government majority-----

----and to create mayhem. That is what you are about. Anybody who uses two fingers in this House to another person is wrong and that person should apologise.

That would apply to Deputy Lowry. Equally, you should face up and acknowledge that any Deputy waving cameras in the face of other Deputies is wrong. That was never a part and parcel of Leinster House.

Equally, the intimidatory barracking of newly elected TDs, be they Independent or not, simply because they support the Government is a new low that I have never witnessed before in this House.

Whatever you think of Deputies Heneghan and Toole, they are newly elected Deputies. You have othered them, consistently pressurised them-----

-----and put them under pressure.

Your declaration of a lack of confidence in the Ceann Comhairle is a further instalment in your overall strategy, declared before this Dáil met, of total opposition.

You will do everything to undermine the institutions of this State, to which you have never been very loyal in your long history.

From the very get-go of this Dáil, you have made the life of the Ceann Comhairle impossible.