Renewed Opposition criticism of the restricted nature of Friday Dáil sittings was rejected by the Minister for Defence.
Mr Smith, who was taking the Order of Business, said that the Dáil had sat on Fridays under the rainbow government and there had been no Order of Business and Question Time. There was not a "squeak" at the time from ministers in that government, the Fine Gael deputy leader, Mr Richard Bruton, and the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte.
Accusing the Opposition of playing to the gallery, Mr Smith said: "One of the reasons we are sitting on Fridays is perhaps the length of time it takes us to deal with the simple Order of Business every day." Earlier, Mr Bruton said that today's sitting would be held in the absence of the Taoiseach, with no Order of Business, no Question Time and no divisions.
"The Taoiseach has come to the House, time and again, and said how burdened he feels because he has to work four hours here in the Dáil, accounting for the way he is managing the country," he added.
"I say to the Taoiseach and his Ministers, however, that that is their job. They are publicly accountable to the House and trying to constrain the ability of the Houses of the Oireachtas to hold the Government to account is not the way to proceed.
"Having these sittings with no proper accountability devalues the role of parliament." He said the Opposition wanted a balanced parliamentary system whereby it could hold the Government to account for its actions. "That is what the country needs and that is why we are not happy with the continued introduction of Friday sittings without a proper Order of Business or other systems of accountability," he added.
Mr Rabbitte said that nothing highlighted the farcical nature and fraudulent purpose of Friday sittings better than last Friday when the Government failed to provide a quorum. "They are designed to clock up the number of days to make the increasingly short sittings look good, as well as giving certain backbenchers, who do turn up, the chance to chalk up more lines for Vincent Browne's tally at the end of the year," he added.
