Fine Gael plans disruptive action in committee dispute

FINE GAEL will this week escalate its campaign of disruptive action in the Dáil over government plans to increase the number of Oireachtas committees from 18 to 21.

Fine Gael’s acting whip, Dan Neville, will meet government chief whip Tom Kitt early this morning to discuss the bitter stand-off caused by opposition claims that they are under-represented on committees.

Fine Gael currently holds two chairs of Oireachtas committees with Labour holding one. However, they argue that they should be entitled to far more than that. Fine Gael says that by rights that it should be chairing seven committees, not two.

Both parties were incensed when the Government announced that it would be increasing the number of committees without offering any additional chairs to the opposition.

Moreover, Labour was unhappy at what it said was a wanton waste of taxpayers’ resources. The party’s main spokesman pointed out yesterday that with three paid positions on each committee (chair, vice-chair and whip), every single government backbencher would potentially have an extra source of income in addition to their €100,000 Dáil salary.

When talks broke down last week, Fine Gael initiated disruptive action in the Dáil. That included its removing itself from the formal pair agreement for voting in the Dáil. It means the end for now of the long-standing “gentleman’s agreement” whereby government ministers or deputies who are abroad or cannot attend the Dáil are “paired” with a Fine Gael deputy for voting purposes.

Fine Gael also called a quorum in the Dáil twice on Thursday. By employing this tactic, it means that the government whips have to ensure that all its TDs are present.

A Fine Gael spokesman said last night that the party will today consider how to escalate the action if no progress is made at this morning’s meeting between Mr Neville and Mr Kitt.

The party wants the D’Hondt system of proportional allocation of roles to be employed for committees, as it is employed for ministries in the North.

“If you look at Westminster, the opposition Tories and Liberal Democrats have far greater representation on committees than the opposition have over here. The system we have is very heavily skewed in favour of the Government,” he said.