IRELAND: Parliamentary Debate Begins on Future of Irish Government

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sarah O'Hara

DUBLIN, Nov 16 1994 (IPS) - Irish parliamentarians began Wednesday to debate the future of the country’s coalition government — and indirectly, the future of the peace process in the disputed province of Northern Ireland.

The Irish parliament (Dail) were called on to debate a motion of no confidence in the government of Taoiseach (prime minister) Albert Reynolds. It was tabled by opposition leader John Bruton. A vote was expected late Wednesday or Thursday.

Fianna Fail party leader Reynolds had earlier failed to win over his Labour party coalition partners with a speech to the Dail designed to patch over the differences between the two allies over the controversial appointemnt of a new High Court chief justice.

“He’ll have to dig deep,” the forthright chairman of the Labour Party, Jim Kemmy, said before the speech.

“I genuinely regret that and any inadvertent offence caused to the Tanaiste (deputy prime minister and Labour leader Dick Spring) and his Labour party colleagues,” Reynolds told the Dail. “We must avoid any recurrence of this type of situation.”

“He didn’t dig deep enough” was Kemmy’s view after the speech.

Bruton, leader of the main opposition party, Fine Gael and probable next Taoiseach if Reynolds falls, said Reynolds’ speech was “completely unbelievable” and that he would be “amazed” if it was accepted by the Labour Party.

“Bully boy tactics and a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude is not the way you run a Government in a parliamentary democracy,” said Mary Harney, leader of the small Progressive Democrats party.

The coalition divorce followed Reynolds’ decision to appoint present Attorney General, Harry Whelehan — a conservative in social issues — to the presidency of Ireland’s supreme High Court. Labour, which backs the liberalising of legislation on divorce and abortion, strongly objected and walked out of the Cabinet.

Concern about Whelehan’s appointment then deepened when it emerged that his office had delayed for six months the extradition of a Catholic priest, Father Brendan Smyth, who is now serving a four-year prison sentence for sex offences against children.

The coalition was supposed to be “a partnership Government” formed 22 months ago between Reynolds’ populist, pragmatic Fianna Fail party and the left-of-centre Labour Party led by Spring, deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Fianna Fail, the majority party, had nine ministers and Labour, six.