Dailwatch - August 1982

Alan Shatter was talking about the Social Welfare Bill, second stage. It was 2.25pm, there was one other Fine Gael TD in the Chamber, one Labour and five Fianna Fail.

Shatter complained that important legislation was being dealt with in a matter of hours or in a day and maybe they should think of some other way of processing legislation. (At present, Bills get through the Dail quicker than an abstemptious, celibate, pacifistic hermit gets through Confession.) Such committees, said Shatter, could deal with amendments, hear representaations from interest groups affected by the legislation etc. .This could avoid the defects which existed in some pieces of legislation passed in the last twelve months. This, for instance, was a badly drafted, badly thought-out, illlconceived piece of legislation.

Just after that, Bertie Ahern got up and said that the party whips had agreed that the Social Welfare debate should continue after Question Time, which was due to begin, with the seccond stage being completed by 4.30 and the remaining stages of the Bill being completed by not later than 6.30. The Dail, or- what was present of it, agreed. Time for Question Time.

Everyone loves Question Time. The TDs get to shout at a Minister and play games with the Ceann Comhairle about what is or is not a proper suppplementary question. The press, faced with the creeping procession of banaality, double-talk and incoherency which passes for debate, can rely on this hour for some high jinks which can be translated into passable copy.

John Farrelly, Meath Fine Gaeler, had the first question, on agricullture. Brian Lenihan replied. A quesstion and its' answer are in most cases just the formalities, the touching of gloves before the fight. The main slogging goes on during the supplemenntary questions, when the Opposition TDs try to wring from Ministers an admission of some wrong-doing or foolishness on the Government's part and the Ministers get a chance to polish up their own halos.

This time, John Farrelly wasn't quick enough. Before he could get up to stomp on Lenihan's answer his own party colleague, Jim O'Keefe, was up and rearing at Lenihan. Hadn't the Minister promised in Portumna ... No, says the Minister, that's incorrect . . . But, hadn't the Minister ...

In the middle of all this, John Bruuton came running into the Chamber. He adopted a semi-Grouch a Marx run, his legs bent so that his body slouched down - one of those runs that people make when they don't want it to apppear too obvious that they're running.

Reaching his seat, Bruton breathhlessly gasped out a question to Jim Tunney, who was in The Chair. Had Question Time started before the bells rang? Shouldn't they have had some warning? What was going on?

Tunney replied that the thing had started in a hurry because there was a lot to do and the Whips had agreed and, anyway, The Chair was at the mercy of the Deputies and Whips. And, anyway, we were only on Question No.1.

Bruton sat down to get his breath back.

There was some more horseplay beetween Lenihan and the Fine Gaelers and then the next question was called. And John Farrelly hadn't managed to get back in with a supplementary on his own question. "Ceann Comhairle, Ceann Comhairle, Ceann Comhairle", he cried to John O'Connell, who had just relieved Jim Tunney of The Chair. We were on to the next question, said O'Connell. But, Ceann Comhairle ...

When that didn't work, Farrelly tried the Point Of Order gambit. "Point Of Order, Ceann Comhairle, Point Of Order."

O'Connell wasn't having any of it.

He. told Farrelly to sit down or he'd have him suspended from The House.

Farrelly, looking like a boy who is seeing his lollipop disappear into the gob of the class bully, sank slowly down in his seat.

Thirty seconds later Farrelly got a bright idea. "Ceann Comhairle, can I raise it on the adjournment?"

Oh, great. Everybody gets to stay on an extra half-hour while he gets his lollipop back.

They got through quite a lot of questions that day. But they did it through devices like, "With the Ceann Comhairle's permission, I'll take Questions 47 to 65 together."

During the Farrelly episode there were twenty-five TDs, plus the Ceann Comhairle, present in the Chamber. One hundred and thirty-five were ... elsewhere.

By 3.10, in what was a relatively boring Question Time, the attendance had slumped to fourteen. Eight Fianna Fail, five Fine Gael, and one Labour.

As the questions and answers went scuttering by, with just a handful of TDs present, it became noticeable that again and again the TD who had put down the question on the Order Paper wasn't there to hear the answer. Where was Eddie Collins? Or Austin Deasy? Ivan Yates, Liarn Naughten, Enda Kenny? Where was Ted Nealon, or Oliver J. Flanagan?

No matter. The Minister answered their questions, the words went down on paper, they can be used for some purpose or other some time or other.

That was the day before the Dail packed up for the summer. Next day was the day for the big guns, the leadders, to lock in battle in The Adjournnment Debate.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary contains the following definition: 'debate', v. t. & i, Dispute about, discuss (a question); hold formal argument, esp. in legislature or public meeting; consider, ponder. Etc.

At 3.30 on Friday July 16 Charlie Haughey was reading a 38-page speech. This was his speech on The Adjournnment. Not a great speech, pretty routine.

As he delivered it there were about three dozen Fianna Fail TDs ranged on the benches around him. Someetimes it went up to 39, sometimes it went down a bit. Across the chamber Garret FitzGerald sat alone on the Fine Gael benches. Barry Desmond sat alone on the Labour benches. Joe Sherlock sat up at the back.

That was it. No dispute, no discusssion, no formal argument. Maybe someone considered or pondered.

At 3.59 John O'Connell put the question, but Fine Gael didn't push a vote. The Fianna Failers grinned. There was a bit of routine stuff about messages from the Senate and the like, then they called it quits and went on holiday until the end of October.