Opposition parties continue to boycott pairing arrangements for absent Ministers
Opposition parties have continued to boycott the pairing arrangement with
Government
Ministers, almost five months after
a bitter row erupted in the Oireachtas
over speaking rights for Independent TDs who supported the
Fianna Fáil
and
Fine Gael
Coalition.
Whips from Opposition parties confirmed this week the protest is continuing. 'Pairs have not been reinstated,' said
Sinn Féin
whip
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
. 'We still feel very strongly about what happened and the way the
[Michael] Lowry
group was supported by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
'We are not co-operating with pairs, and don't intend to reinstate a pairing arrangement anytime soon,' Mr Mac Lochlainn said.
Facilitating pairs is a long-standing custom in the Dáil. They are most commonly used when a Minister travels abroad on official business, or when a Government TD is sick or incapacitated.
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In an arrangement brokered between the Government Chief Whip and the whips from the main Opposition parties, a TD from the Opposition benches agrees to absent themselves from the chamber for the vote, essentially cancelling out each other's vote.
The Labour Party also confirmed separately it is not offering support for pairs at the moment.
'We have not given any pairs yet,' said
Duncan Smith
of the
Labour Party
.
Other Labour sources said the party may review that stance in the future.
The
Social Democrats
has not given any pairs in this Dáil but acting leader
Cian O'Callaghan
said its policy had not changed and it did offer pairs in 'rare and exceptional circumstances'.
'If there was a bereavement or illness for example, we would facilitate. The last time we had a pair (arrangement) was when (then minister for climate change)
Eamon Ryan
went to the COP conference and
Jennifer Whitmore
offered a pair,' Mr O'Callaghan said.
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He said that with party leader Holly Cairns on maternity leave until September, the party is effectively offering a pair. 'We are already down one vote and we are not keen to reduce our Dáil representation any further,' Mr O'Callaghan said.
The Government's working majority in the 174-seat Dáil is such that the boycott of pairing arrangements has not yet impacted on any votes when significant divisions have been called.
It has a majority of 20 and would need to lose the support of nine TDs to lose a vote in the House. When
Barry Heneghan
and Gillian Toole, two Independent TDs who support the Government,
voted with the Opposition in May
on a Sinn Féin Bill in support of
Palestine
, the Government still comfortably won the vote by a margin of 87 to 75.
A spokesman for Government Chief Whip
Mary Butler
said she was managing the scenario in a situation where Government Ministers were constantly travelling to Brussels and elsewhere on Government business.
The Chief Whip has asked for pairs at the business committee but none have yet been offered by the Opposition. There was an automatic pairing arrangement in the Dáil whenever a Minister attended a session of Seanad Éireann but that is no longer operating.
'We have asked for the reinstatement of that pairing arrangement,' said the spokesman. 'Seanad business has had to be suspended in recent weeks because of the unavailability of a pair. That is suboptimal.'
Withdrawing from pairing arrangements is one of the few procedural tactics an Opposition party can use to put pressure on a Government, thereby threatening its Dáil majority.
Pairing arrangements become essential when a government has a very small majority, or is in a minority position. In late 1982, the minority government of
Charles Haughey
was facing a confidence vote. The Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, Bill Loughnane, died suddenly and the Carlow-Kilkenny TD Jim Gibbons – a bitter opponent of Haughey within the party – was seriously ill in hospital.
In the absence of a pair, Fianna Fáil considered the possibility of taking the very ill Mr Gibbons from hospital by ambulance to vote in the Dáil. It did not happen and the vote was lost, precipitating the fall of the government.
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