Micheál Martin asked to review comment about Sinn Féin leader ‘telling lies’

The taoiseach (Irish prime minister) and the leader of the opposition are embroiled in a row over “telling lies”.

It follows a clash in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament) about the ongoing housing crisis in the Republic of Ireland.

Responding to stinging criticism from the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin spoke in Irish and said McDonald was “ag insint bréaga”, which translates into English as “is telling lies”.

Dáil Standing Orders debar any member from accusing another TD of being: “a liar, lying or telling a lie”.

An incensed Sinn Féin leadership intervened immediately, led by the party’s deputy leader, Pearse Doherty TD (Irish member of parliament), who is a fluent Irish language speaker from the County Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish language speaking region).

The taoiseach insisted that he never called the Sinn Féin leader a liar.

Doherty’s intervention was significant because many members of the Dáil do not speak the native Irish language fluently or do not always fully understand Irish when it is spoken.

The Irish language is recognised as the country’s first official language.

It was suggested during Wednesday’s controversy that the Ceann Comhairle (speaker of Dáil Éireann), Verona Murphy, may not have fully understood or heard what the taoiseach had said when he spoke in Irish while addressing the Sinn Féin leader.

Murphy said at the time that she “did not hear the remarks” and pledged to review the transcript.

Having done so, the Ceann Comhairle has now responded to a letter of complaint from McDonald.

Murphy said she has asked the taoiseach to “review his remarks in the context of the rulings of the chair on parliamentary debate”.

It now remains for the taoiseach to decide how he will respond to the Ceann Comhairle and if this might involve a retraction of the Irish words “ag insint bréaga” (“is telling lies”) and a correction of the Dáil record.