The Government, under strong criticism from Opposition members, last night defended the adjournment of Dáil business for more than a week after just 22 sittings since the end of the summer recess.
A Government spokeswoman said the week-long adjournment had been in place for 10 years and that it had had been agreed at a meeting of whips last week.
However, the Fine Gael chief whip, Mr Bernard Durkan, denied that there had been an agreement.
"There's no use whatsoever in the Government saying there was an agreement because there wasn't," he said.
There were angry exchanges in the Dáil and Seanad yesterday before both Houses rose until until November 4th. This follows a 13-week summer recess between July 3rd until September 30th. Shortly before the summer recess, TDs received their first pay increase increase under the benchmarking award. This increased a TD's basic salary of €70,446 by €2,078 in a full year.
The main Opposition parties voted against a Government motion in the Dáil to suspend business.
The Seanad, which did not resume business until October 7th, had sat seven times before yesterday's adjournment.
In the Seanad chamber yesterday, the leader of the House, Ms O'Rourke, said the Opposition was guilty of "hypocrisy and crap" over its stance on the closure of business.
The Oireachtas spokeswoman defended the adjournment, stating that committee hearings continue next week.
There had been committee hearings in July and September, she said, so the only month in which there were no Oireachtas sittings was August. There had been more than 125 committee hearings between July 8th and yesterday's recess, she said. "That's a huge volume of work."
Labour's environment spokesman, Mr Eamonn Gilmore, said the Government used every excuse and took every opportunity to stay away from the Dáil.
"They do not like being questioned and being held to account by the Opposition. They are running away," he said.
Later, the leader of Greens, Mr Trevor Sargent, said the recess was outrageous and sent out all the wrong signals to the electorate. Some 21 Dáil sittings are currently planned before the Christmas recess on December 18th, and at least two additional Friday sittings are likely before then. The Christmas recess continues for more than a month. Dáil sittings do not resume until January 27th.
