Sinn Féin TD Pádraig MacLochlainn has said that the refusal of the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee to participate in a full question and answer session in the Dáil is “really dangerous for our democracy.”
His comment comes as Opposition parties have temporarily withdrawn from the Dáil business committee amid a deepening row over Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s refusal to entertain a full Dáil question and answer session on the Séamus Woulfe affair.
The Business Committee, which meets on Thursday to establish the next week’s parliamentary agenda, has been riven by infighting over the issue, with Opposition efforts to force a full question and answer session routinely being dismissed by the Government.
This has led to rows on the floor of the Dáil and the Government has been forced to use its majority to force through an agenda without the matter on it.
Ms McEntee has committed to answering questions on the issue through her usual oral parliamentary questions, but this has been dismissed by the Opposition as unsatisfactory.
Ms McEntee wrote to the Business Committee last week offering to address the issue in oral parliamentary questions at a time of their choosing, which the Opposition rejected.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr MacLochlainn asked that if the committee were to accept “this precedent” where would it stop?
On the same programme, Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin said the Minister’s position was not a dangerous precedent, and she had agreed to come into the House to answer questions.
The Minister had offered to come forward next week to answer questions, but that the Opposition had blocked this, he said.
If the Opposition did not get their way they called for votes which were causing delays in the work of the Dáil. The Opposition had “the lion’s share” of speaking time, added Mr Griffin.
“The Opposition wants to make a circus of this. This is a witch hunt. They want to drag this on.”
