Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness has been elected the chairman of the influential Public Accounts Committee after Fine Gael and Labour TDs supported his nomination.
Mr McGuinness was elected by a decisive 11 to two majority over the other nominee, independent TD Shane Ross at the inaugural meeting of the committee this afternoon.
The chair of the most powerful Dáil committee - which acts as a watchdog on public spending - has traditionally gone to a TD from the largest Opposition party.
However, the technical group, comprised of independent TDs and the five deputies from the United Left Alliance, challenged that precedent and argued that it should not longer stand.
The group based its argument on changed circumstances. It said that Fianna Fáil, with only 20 deputies, could not be characterised clearly as the Opposition. It also contended that it would be improper to allow a Fianna Fáil TD chair a committee that would be investigating spending under the previous Fianna Fáil-led government.
The group won support for that position from Sinn Féin. That left the Opposition parties deadlocked at two votes each on the 13-person committee, leaving the nine Government TDs to decide which would prevail.
In the event this afternoon, the two Government parties sided with precedent and gave their backing to Mr McGuinness, a TD and former minister of state for Trade, who represents the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency.
Mr Ross was nominated by the Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald but attracted no other support.
Fine Gael TD John Deasy criticised Mr Ross saying that even if the Government TDs had not been subject to a whip, he would not have supported him because he had "championed" disgraced Irish Nationwide boss Michael Fingleton and the former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Sean Fitzpatrick in the past.
Mr Ross described Mr Deasy's claims as "nonsense". For his part, he said he had nothing against Mr McGuinness personally but had put himself up for the position because he believed it was "utterly inappropriate that Fianna Fáil should be put in charge" of the Public Accounts Committee.
Mr McGuinness previously served as vice chair of the committee from 2002 to 2007. He is Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on small business.
A native of Kilkenny, he was first elected to the Dáil in 1997 and was minister of state for trade from 2008 to 2009.
Kieran O'Donnell of Fine Gael was elected vice chairman of the committee.
Mr McGuinness said it was "a great honour and privilege" to have been elected to the position.
"By the nature of its role as the public spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee is one of the most powerful Oireachtas committees," he said.
"It has a key role to play in ensuring that there is accountability and transparency in the way Government agencies allocate, spend and manage their finances and in guaranteeing that the taxpayer receives value for money for every euro spent. I look forward to working with all of my colleagues on the committee to ensure that it fulfils its remit."
The committee will meet on Thursdays at 10am.
