‘You’re in the Dáil, not Ballymagash!’
Ceann Comhairle’s rebuke to TDs in abortion row
INDEPENDENT TDs Danny Healy-Rae and Mattie McGrath were yesterday accused of making the Dáil look like the fictional backward town of ‘Ballymagash’. Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghail made the comparison as he sought to halt a boisterous slanging match over whether abortion legislation was being deliberately delayed by its opponents.
Ballymagash was the creation of the late broadcaster Frank Hall, whose portrayal of council wranglings was a huge TV hit in the 1970s on the satirical RTÉ show Hall’s Pictorial Weekly.
As Mr Healy-Rae and Mr McGrath shouted loudly at the front bench, the Ceann Comhairle turned to them and said: ‘Please Deputies. The House is being brought into disrepute. I ask the Deputies to please resume their seats. This is not Ballymagash.’
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett had complained about ‘obvious attempts by some to frustrate the democratic wishes of the people’. If necessary the Dáil should sit on extra days before Christmas to deal with any amendments that might come from the Seanad, he added.
The Taoiseach said he would encourage people making contributions on the legislation to be pithy, and not ‘repeat arguments they have already made’.
Leo Varadkar added: ‘That is unnecessary and only causes us to take more time than needed.’ Mr McGrath hit back, saying: ‘I have to refute the allegation that we are delaying anything. We are doing our democratic job here. We had no pre-legislative scrutiny of this legislation.’
He appealed to the Taoiseach to withdraw ‘disgusting remarks’ that Independents were filibustering this Bill. They were are entitled to put down amendments, and – unlike others – were not taking up their full speaking time, he said.
Mr McGrath then spoke about a young man in Tipperary who had developed a tyre app for road safety. The Taoiseach said he thought the TD said ‘tie rack’, and that he was ‘not quite sure what use a tie rack would be to the Road Safety Authority’. Mr McGrath then complained about ‘the Taoiseach’s Dublin 4 accent’, and fellow Independent Michael Healy-Rae told Mr Varadkar: ‘There is no need to be smart.’
On filibustering, the Taoiseach said: ‘I cannot withdraw something I believe to be true.’
Mr McGrath exploded: ‘It is not true!’ as both he and Danny Healy-Rae took to their feet, shouting. The Ceann Comhairle had to repeatedly appeal to the TDs for calm. The storm continued, however, with Michael Healy-Rae saying: ‘So the Taoiseach can tell lies and put them on the record of the Dáil?’
The Ceann Comhairle replied: ‘The record stands.’ Michael Healy-Rae protested: ‘That is wrong. It is a disgrace.’ Labour leader Brendan Howlin then chipped in, saying: ‘Deputies cannot call other deputies liars.’ Order was eventually restored.
‘Disgusting remarks’