Ross, Shane

Order of Business (Continued)

Will the Taoiseach consider giving Government time to a Bill I have on the Order Paper today? It would deprive the Taoiseach and all future taoisigh of the power to dissolve the Dáil. This is in...

I understand that under Standing Order 26(3), I can raise this matter on the Order of Business today because it is on the Order Paper. It has nothing to do with the Taoiseach and the recent diffic...

Yes.

Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Fixed Period for the Duration of Dáil Éireann) Bill 2015: First Stage

Tairgim:

Or the Tánaiste, as the case may be. I am putting this forward because it is a matter of great public concern. This process has been brought into disrepute in recent times, particularly by the pr...

Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Fixed Period for the Duration of Dáil Éireann) Bill 2015: First Stage (Continued)

It also means-----

It was those Fine Gael Deputies who last week were calling for a general election.

They were the ones who were so disappointed with what the Taoiseach did last week. They are the ones who are cheering him so loudly today.

If the Taoiseach had been able to make up his mind on what day he would call the general election, they would not have been sitting there last week kicking up about it. The Labour Party contribute...

It encouraged it and-----

-----now today they are looking for a general election in February, not November. The Taoiseach has the power but equivocated. I am asking that we take it away from him.

It is very difficult.

The problem is there is an abuse of executive power and it is embedded in the Constitution. Every Taoiseach has looked - as the Taoiseach did last week - at opinion polls-----

-----and decided on the date of the general election, depending, simply and solely, on his own popularity.

Last week the Taoiseach said he would make the decision in the national interest. One day he decided in the national interest that it would be held in November but the next he decided in the natio...

What he was really deciding was that holding it in November would be in the interests of Fine Gael, but then the Tánaiste came in and put a bit of pressure on him. He backed off to the absolute di...

-----by amending the Constitution and providing for a fixed term.

I thank the Taoiseach.

Tairgim: "Go dtógfar an Bille in am Comhaltaí Príobháideacha."

  I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

  Cuireadh agus aontaíodh an cheist.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed)

  Debate resumed on the following motion: