LABOUR WELCOMES STANDING ORDERS CHANGE TO RESTORE ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday October 23, 2002 22:03 by FYI

(I always knew Emmet liked whips..)

STATEMENT BY EMMET STAGG TD Labour Party Whip Wednesday, 23 October, 2002

"There is no doubt that the McCracken Tribunal confirmed a series of scandalous
actions by Deputy Lowry".
Deputy Joe Higgins, Dail Debates, 10/10/1997

"Criminal charges should now be brought against Mr. Haughe and Mr. Lowry for
their deliberate attempts to evade tax and hoodwink the tribunal and the
public".
Deputy John Gormley, Irish Times, 26/8/1997

October 2002 John Gormley and Joe Higgins join forces with Michael Lowry and
others to establish a Technical Group, thereby restoring the Whip to Lowry.

"As Labour Party Whip I welcome the government proposals to amend Dail Standing
Orders to restore the primacy of political parties in procedural matters in the
Dail and regard the criticisms of the proposals as hysterical and ill founded.

"We regard the criticism made of the proposals by the Technical/Michael Lowry
group as being particularly hypocritical. I regard the comments made in the
Dail this morning by Deputy Dan Boyle on behalf of the Technical/Michael Lowry
Group regarding members of the House being 'corruptible' as being particular
offensive and I call on him to withdraw the comments without further delay."

"The comment from Deputy Boyle is all the more astonishing and hypocritical
given that the Technical Group has restored the party whip to the disgraced
Deputy, Michael Lowry. Since he resigned the Fine Gael Whip in 1997, Deputy
Lowry has been ostracised by all parties in the House. Deputy Lowry misled this
House, was strongly criticised in the Report of the McCracken Tribunal and still
has many questions to answer before the Moriarity Tribunal.

"Can I remind the Greens, Sinn Fein and other what Mr. Justice McCracken said of
Michael Lowry:
"It is particularly unacceptable that a member of Dail Eireann, and in
particular a Cabinet Minister ?..should be supported in his personal lifestyle
by gifts made to him personally. It is particularly unacceptable that such
gifts should emanate from prominent businessmen within the State".

Sinn Fein, the Greens and Joe Higgins have effectively provided political
rehabilitation for Michael Lowry."

"The Technical/Michael Lowry Group is a totally artificial creation. It
comprises of three separate political parties and 11 Independents who have
virtually nothing in common. This has led to the ludicrous situation where
'representatives' of the Technical Group take different positions on different
days. We have also had the bizarre sight ? as on the Order of Business, this
morning, of Trevor Sergeant and Caoimhighin O'Caolain fleeing from the Dail
Chamber in a sort of Parliamentary Lanigan's Ball so that Joe Higgins could
pretend to be Leader for a day."

"We respect the right of Michael Lowry and Joe Higgins and anyone else in the
Dail to form a Technical Group. It should be emphasised that the proposed
changes in Standing Orders will not in any way reduce the entitlement of the
Technical/Michael Lowry Group to speaking time, private members time, Dail
questions or any other matter. They will simply provide that members of a
political party with 21 members will be called to contribute before
representatives of a party with a handful of Deputies or Independents."

"The Labour Party as a single coherent party, speaking with one voice, is far
better equipped to provide the sort of formidable opposition that this
discredited right wing government needs, than a rag, bag and bobtail collection
of political views."

"The row created in the Dail this morning was a diversion. At a time when the
Dail should be pinning the Taoiseach down on hospital waiting lists, government
inaction in the face of the child sex abuse scandal, cutbacks and mounting
redundancies, the public will regard the emphasis on relatively minor changes in
Standing Orders as very peculiar indeed."