I move:—
That the Committee on Procedure and Privileges be instructed to draw up for the consideration of the Dáil a Standing Order or Standing Orders, dealing specifically with Deputies who bring the House into contempt by disorderly conduct towards the Chair.
The Standing Orders as at present framed make provision for dealing with disorderly conduct on the part of a Deputy towards another Deputy, but do not specifically provide for disorderly conduct towards the occupant of the Chair. That such a contingency might arise was considered by the Committee who framed the Standing Orders, but the conclusion come to then was that it was undesirable to include in the Standing Orders an Order dealing specifically with the matter unless and until necessity for such an Order arose. Consequently, as the Standing Orders are now drafted, the offence of disorderly conduct towards the Chair is from the point of view of disciplinary consequences on the same footing as that of disorderly conduct towards an ordinary Deputy. That in effect means that when a Deputy has been suspended on the first occasion the period of suspension is a week, on the second occasion a fortnight, and on a third or subsequent occasion one month.
I am of opinion, and it is an opinion which should commend itself to the House as a whole that these disciplinary consequences are totally inadequate to meet the offence of disorderly conduct towards the Chair, which in essence is contempt of the House itself. As to what the procedure should be, that question is one for consideration in the first instance by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges and for determination ultimately by the House itself when the report of that Committee has been tabled.
It has always been the considered view of this House that the Chair must be protected in the discharge of its functions from innuendo, insinuation, or direct personal abuse. Failing acceptance of the position that the Chair in any House—whether the Ceann Comhairle, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle or any other presiding Deputy must not be attacked for the way in which he discharges his functions save by the method which has been indicated to the House already, no other course than that suggested in the motion appears practicable if the fundamental basis on which the business of the House has always been transacted is to be preserved.