And they’re off... on their summer holiday

THE Government is planning to cut and run for an early summer recess as it struggles with political management and Covid19 issues.

The new Coalition has not revealed plans for the summer recess, but, in a significant indication of intent, committee formation has been relegated to the autumn schedule.

Typically, in the modern era the Dáil goes into recess in the second week of July and returns in mid to late September.

The Dáil has met on only 26 occasions this year, with most of those being trimmed by the exigencies of coronavirus 19.

The Government is, however, intent on following current precedent of sitting for two weeks into July and returning in the last week of September.

There have been significant variations in recent decades over the length of the infamous summer break.

Bertie Ahern refined the system to a high peak where, by sitting for one day in July and one day in September, the Taoiseach could technically claim that the summer break consisted of the month of

August.

This feat occurred in 2005 where the Dáil went into recess on July 1 and returned on September 28.

During the Ahern era, the norm was set at a break lasting from the first week of July to the last week of September.

This was actually an improvement on the 1980s where the recess would continue routinely into October.

The Dáil during the Ahern and Bruton governments was also recalled early in September in 1996 and 1998 where it sat for a day to pass legislation setting up CAB in response to the murder of Veronica Guerin and the Omagh bombing respectively. On both occasions TDs set aside one day for these issues.

In the first year of Enda Kenny’s Democratic Revolution there was an increase in Dáil sittings with the recess being reduced to eight weeks.

By the close of Mr Kenny’s reign, though, there had been a restoration of the lengthy ten week summer break.

The initial years of Mr Varadkar’s regime also witnessed an initial outbreak of legislative fervour, with the date of the Dáil return moving back to early September.

The length of the summer break has been a regular catalyst for spats between the government and opposition, with the latter complaining over the length of the recess. These complaints reduced substantially after Enda Kenny responded one year by agreeing with the opposition and extending the

Dáil sitting for another week.