From top: Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald; Independent TD Mattie McGrath
It will not surprise you to read that there is now a row in the Dáil about whether the schedule should be amended so that Helen McEntee can take questions about the nomination of Seamus Woulfe to the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/DOCbLct110
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) November 24, 2020
“You are behaving in a way that is an abuse of your office,” says Mary Lou McDonald.
The Ceann Comhairle: “it is not for me to determine what business the Government does in the Government’s time.”
“The heavy gang are back,” proclaims Mattie McGrath.
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) November 24, 2020
This afternoon.
More as we get it.
Yesterday: Cooling Off
UPDATE:
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said she is being accountable to the Dáil, despite refusing Opposition demands that she make a statement in the chamber regarding the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Seamus Woulfe and then answer questions.
The minister said she is prepared to answer questions about the appointment through the long-standing process of written queries submitted by Opposition TDs several days in advance known as Ministerial Parliamentary Questions (PQs).
She told a news conference in Dublin that this process is standard practice, which happens every week and has been in place for many years.
Minister says she is being accountable to Dáil over Woulfe (RTÉ)
JAAB doesn’t recommend for appointments. Michilín uses the ‘recommended’ word even though he knows it’s a lie.
Is that the best you can do? You pick one word out of his quote and treat it like it’s a smoking gun even though in the quote above Mícheál doesn’t say JAAB recommended anyone for appointment. He says “the JAAB recommendation on the suitability of the applicant”. The purpose of JAAB “is to identify persons and inform the Government of the suitability of those persons for appointment to judicial office.”
http://www.jaab.ie/
…I think the big attraction of getting Helen McEntee to answer questions is that she displays those unparliamentry traits of answering straight questions and telling the truth…