Dáil Éireann
Photo: Justin Pickard (Flickr) Staff Reporter
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has defended the prayer said at the start of each day the Dáil sits after calls for it to be axed.
Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy described the prayer as “anachronistic” and called for it to be abolished as part of Dáil reform.
Mr McGrath, however, said that such calls were “nonsense”.
“This is pure shenanigans for the sake of publicly I think. It’s a distraction from the real issue of forming a government,” Mr McGrath told The Irish Catholic.
“I think it’s reckless. Where is his tolerance? It is only 15 seconds. If that’s the kind of reform he is looking for it’s a sad state,” he said.
Former TD and MEP Gay Mitchell also defended the daily Dáil prayer.
“The prayer at the beginning has been part of the tradition of the Dáil for a very long time,” Mr Mitchell told this newspaper.
Axed
“I think that prayer has a place in the public sphere and I certainly wouldn’t like to see it disappear,” he said.
Referring to calls for the prayer to be axed as “reactionary and thoughtless”, the former Fine Gael politician said a “more considered debate about the role that our traditions play” was needed.
Noting that there were non-Christian members of the Dáil, however, Mr Mitchell suggested that the prayer could be “slightly modified in its wording to be more inclusive and those who don’t pray might just pause for a moment”.
Photo: Justin Pickard (Flickr)