Éamon Ryan appears to fall asleep during a Dáil vote
Transport Minister Éamon Ryan has been criticised after appearing to fall asleep during a Dáil vote.
The Green Party leader was in the chamber for a vote on a Social Democrats' motion on workers' rights.
It sought to increase protection for workers across a range of areas, including low-pay, precarious work, collective bargaining and the valuing of essential workers the country has relied on during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government amended the motion, a move Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon says weakened the bill. During a roll call vote on the government amendment, Mr Ryan's name was called a number of times, with Oireachtas TV cameras appearing to capture the Dublin Bay South TD asleep.
@EamonRyan appears to be catching a bit of shut eye during a vote in Dàil today pic.twitter.com/vTvNtp0LcI
— Daniel McConnell (@McConnellDaniel) July 16, 2020
He appears to be woken by government Chief Whip Jack Chambers.
Mr Gannon said that Mr Ryan's conduct was not good enough.
"We put a lot of effort into the motion. We spent a lot of time putting it together, engaging with unions and stakeholders. We all gave well researched speeches, were in the Convention Centre until 11pm last night.
"The minimum you'd expect is for a minister to pay attention.
"It was disrespectful to the people putting the motion forward and the subject of the motion - workers. The programme for government only has a couple of lines on workers rights, we were looking to set that right.
"I understand he's tired, but we're all tired. We were there until 11pm last night.
"The fact that the Government amended the bill says one thing, the fact that he fell asleep says another."
Sinn Féin senator Niall Ó Donnghaile tweeted in reference to the laughter in the chamber at the incident.
"I don't know who's laughing, because that sure as hell ain't funny," he wrote.
The Irish Examiner has asked the Green Party for a statement on the incident.