An interesting day ahead as the Dail set to vote on new speaking time arrangments

The Dáil will vote today on whether or not to accept new speaking time arrangements.

The coalition voted through changes to give more speaking time to backbenchers, including Michael Lowry and his independents, as well as cutting the amount of overall time the Taoiseach takes questions in the Dáil chamber. The government says it's to give a voice to its backbenchers, but the opposition says it will diminish the ability of opposition to hold the government to account. Opposition parties say they won't cooperate with pairing arrangements for ministers and will keep all options of protest on the table. North Wexford TD Brian Brennan Said its time to have a functioning government, "Yes, I'm here the Dail since early and it should be a very interesting day ahead. But what we need is a functional government. At the moment, this is simply not happening. We're here for months, we have no committee set up, and with a major international crisis looming, the tariffs coming from the States, which could lead to thousands of job losses. The people that voted, they've had their say, so they've given us a clear mandate to go up and run the country. And this must happen this week."