Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has contested Ceann Comhairle Seamus Kirk’s interpretation of Dáil standing orders.
Mr Kenny said that the House should not be 'spanceled and strangled' by a vote taken last week.
He added that under standing orders the Ceann Comhairle has discretion to allow questions from Opposition leaders to the Taoiseach.
The Ceann Comhairle denied that he has discretion. ‘The Government proposes,’ he said, ‘and the House disposes.’
However, Mr Kenny said that when Taoiseach Brian Cowen left the Dáil after the vote last week on this week's business ‘he turned his back on the Dáil and on the people’.
Mr Kenny also listed a number of serious issues that had arisen since the Dáil adjourned last week, about which he wished to question the Taoiseach.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that the motion passed last Thursday did not exclude Leaders’ Questions this week.
He said that Ceann Comhairle was wrong in this interpretation and was creating a new precedent.
The Ceann Comhairle replied that if Mr Gilmore wished to pursue this line, he would have to table a substantive motion.
