ieExplains: What can and can't be said in the Dáil?

So, what's it all about and what can and can't be said in the cut and thrust of political sparring?

What happened last week?

During last Wednesday's session of Leaders' Questions, Mary Lou McDonald challenged Mr Martin on the Government's housing record and as the exchange went on, he accused her of “telling lies again”, stating that the opposition leader was “ag insint bréaga arís” on the topic of housing. 

This prompted angry reaction from the opposition benches, who said the Taoiseach's utterances had broken parliamentary rules.

There's rules?

There are two sets, actually. The first is the Standing Orders Relative To Public Business, which lays out how the Dáil functions, how time is divvied up and how the mechanics of day-to-day debate happen. The second, and for our purposes right now the more interesting, is a document entitled Salient Rulings of the Chair, Fourth Edition, 2011. 

It is, effectively, a compendium of things that Ceann Comhairle going back decades have decided is or isn't okay in the chamber. It is here that part of the issue lies, because some in Sinn Féin felt that Mr Martin's charge breached this book's rulings. 

Mr Martin's argument is that his translation of the term bréaga was "untruths".

How did it do that?

If you're the kind of person who immediately downloaded the rulings when you read its title in the previous paragraph, flip to page 42. There, you will find a sentence that says "it has been ruled as disorderly to state that a Member was a liar, lying or telling a lie". 

Additionally, it is against the rules to say another TD was telling untruths or not telling the truth, was deliberately misstating what was said, deliberately misled the House or public or that truth could not be expected from a Member, that information given by a member would likely be false, or that a Member's word was not reliable or could not be accepted or that he did not know what the truth means.

That's pretty conclusive. What else aren't you allowed say?

Loads. Because Dáil debates can become fairly rowdy, there's been plenty of occasion for chairs to rule a word out of order. Those referenced in the book include: brat or acting the brat, buffoon or buffoonery, chancer, communist, corner boy, corner boy tactics, coward, fascist or fascist Minister, gurrier, guttersnipe, hypocrite, bloody hypocrites, hypocrisy etc, rat, scumbag, scurrilous, scurrilous speaker, yahoo.

It has also been ruled unparliamentary to say someone is dishonest, a smuggler, a black marketeer or a rogue, scoundrel or protector of thieves and rogues. You also cannot say that anyone was guilty of "interfering in the distribution of land while a Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture". Just in case you were minded to do so.

What else does it say?

The document has strict rules about how you should address a colleague in the chamber.

“A member should not be referred to by a Christian name, by Christian name and surname without prefix "Deputy", by surname only or by an appended name,” the document states, while it also has rules about how you discuss the private lives of others. 

Forbidden is the discussion of a member's business or divulging of private conversations. Members should also not refer to another Member's family.

So, what happens now?

In light of the exchange and a review of the transcript, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy wrote to the Taoiseach asking him to reflect on what he'd said. He has argued there is precedent for people using similar language without being pulled up. 

In his letter to Ms Murphy, released by the Oireachtas Library on Tuesday, Mr Martin says that Sinn Féin TDs David Cullinane and Pearse Doherty and People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy have accused him and Tánaiste Simon Harris of lying in the last year and have not withdrawn the remarks.

He said that while he "regrets" the matter has arisen, he "cannot withdraw a remark he did not make".

He adds that Fócloir.ie and two Irish-English dictionaries list bréag as "an untruth" and eige as "lie". He goes on to say that a suggestion from Mr Doherty that he would use the Irish language to "camouflage" something is "reprehensible".

So Ms Murphy has referred it to the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight, so this one isn't over.