CEANN COMHAIRLE John O’Donoghue announced late last night that he will resign his position next week and make a statement to the Dáil.
A Labour Party spokesman welcomed the announcement and said the party would not now proceed with its motion of no confidence in Mr O’Donoghue.
However, a Fine Gael spokesman expressed surprise that any consideration had been given to a deal that would allow the Ceann Comhairle to remain in office until after the Green Party made a decision on Saturday about whether or not to pull out of Government.
A Green Party spokesman said last night that party leader John Gormley had been asked by the Taoiseach whether or not they could support Mr O’Donoghue in a motion of confidence but had refused.
The two men had three conversations; the first in Mr Gormley’s office, the second in the Taoiseach’s office and the third by phone and on each occasion the Green leader said his party could not vote for Mr O’Donoghue.
The Green Party spokesman said they were prepared “to give Mr O’Donoghue time and space to consider his response”.
The controversy took a dramatic twist in the Dáil yesterday afternoon when Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore bluntly told Mr O’Donoghue it was time to go. “I regret to say this but I consider that your position is no longer tenable. I think you will either have to resign or be removed from office,” Mr Gilmore told the Ceann Comhairle across the tension-filled chamber.
At a meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party last night Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan argued that Mr O’Donoghue should have been given the opportunity to explain himself to the Oireachtas Commission, but Mr Gilmore’s intervention set the wheels in motion for his departure.
The Labour leader rejected the view that the appropriate forum to deal with the matter was the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the body that runs the Dáil and Seanad.
This course had been suggested last weekend by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who called on Mr O’Donoghue to reduce his staff, dispense with his special adviser and pay back any expenses not related to his official duties as Ceann Comhairle.
Mr Gilmore had proposed instead that all the party leaders should meet to review the position instead of leaving it to the commission but Taoiseach Brian Cowen declined to take part in such a meeting.
In the Dáil Mr Cowen said he was very much of the view that the Ceann Comhairle be given an opportunity to put his proposals and his views to the commission. “I felt that that would be in keeping and consonant with the independence of his office and that he should be afforded an opportunity to do so,” he said.
However, following Mr Gilmore’s statement it was quickly accepted on all sides of the Dáil that the Ceann Comhairle could not longer remain in office.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the situation had changed since he had proposed that Mr O’Donoghue should account for his actions at the commission meeting today.
“We wanted the Ceann Comhairle [to have] his say at the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission meeting. Obviously circumstances have now changed and the Ceann Comhairle has lost the support and confidence of at least two parties of the House.
“To avoid a clear politicisation of this office, and to avoid inter-party wrangling over the office of the Ceann Comhairle, I now believe it is incumbent on John O’Donoghue to resign to avoid that situation,” said Mr Kenny.
Earlier Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin was the first to make a direct call on Mr O’Donoghue to resign. He said the Ceann Comhairle had embarked on a series of “lavish junkets” since taking office, bringing to the position “the same cavalier attitude to public money that became all-pervasive during the Celtic Tiger years at the highest levels in Government and in some State and semi-State bodies such as Fás and that was in evidence during his term as Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism”.
Mr O’Donoghue (53) was first elected to the Dáil in 1987 and was a cabinet Minister from 1997 until 2007, when he was appointed to the office of Ceann Comhairle.
His wife, Kate Ann, who accompanied him on many of his official trips which have become a source of controversy, is the daughter of the late Michael Pat Murphy, Labour TD for Cork South West from 1951 to 1981.
The Opposition was initially reluctant to raise the issue of Mr O’Donoghue’s expenses because of the independence of the office of Ceann Comhairle and also because he was regarded on all sides of the Dáil as a fair and impartial chairman.
