Mayo Deputy Beverley Flynn said this week that the Dáil should sit during the summer until the banking and fiscal crisis is brought under control.
She said that to close the Dáil for three months in the middle of a fiscal crisis would send out all the wrong signals both domestically and internationally.
“We as legislators cannot simply walk away from this crisis and return in three months in the hope that things will have changed,” she said.
“The business people of the country who are trying to keep afloat will not be closing shop. The least we should be doing is engaging with our problems and showing people that we are serious about working our way out of the crisis we find ourselves in. Ordinary working people and families will not thank us if we simply close down and walk away as if there is nothing wrong,” she continued.
Dep Flynn said there were huge problems facing the Dáil, among them the setting up of Nama, the stabilisation of the banking system, and the ordering of the public finances.
“If we as legislators want to regain the respect of the people, then we must work to earn it,” she added. “By working through the summer, we would be demonstrating our solidarity with employers and workers in this time of uncertainty for all of them.
“Crisis situations call for crisis actions, and I am proposing that Dáil Éireann continue to work through the summer in the interest of the country and its people,” said Dep Flynn.
Dep Flynn said that thousands of people, workers and employers were living week to week, unsure of what the future holds for them and the luxury of a three month close down is not an option. “If we as their representatives are serious about our responsibilities, we cannot simply close down the Dáil when there is so much unfinished work to be completed.”
