A government minister resorted to insults in Manx Gaelic after being thwarted in his attempt to speed up consideration of a new law.

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas branded as ’boghtynid’ one of the reasons given for members opposing his attempt to suspend the rules and allow two different readings of a proposed charities law to take place on the same day.

Speaker Juan Watterson ordered him to give a translation into English and the disgruntled minister said it meant ’nonsense’.

Despite his protestations, however, MHKs rejected his move to allow a second reading of the Charities Registration and Regulation Bill to take place on Tuesday, immediately after the first reading.

A second reading, when the principle is debated, normally follows at least one week after the first reading, which is purely a formal process.

The Charities Registration and Regulation Bill aims to modernise the register of Manx charities and increase the amount of information that will need to be submitted by organisations. It has already passed through Legislative Council.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey), who had several run-ins with the minister at last week’s sitting, challenged the bid to suspend standing orders by arguing that the only reason Mr Thomas seemed to have for doing so was because the minister had not put the bill forward for inclusion on the House of Keys agenda the previous week.

He seemed to particularly get Mr Thomas’s goat by suggesting the minister was not giving himself enough time to deal with the bill, particularly with other commitments.

Mr Hooper cited the Safeguarding Act, which he claimed would come into effect without any underlying regulations next month.

’The minister himself has previously stated this would not make any sense at all to commence the Safeguarding Act provisions without the supporting network of subordinate legislation,’ said Mr Hooper.

’I can only conclude the reason he is doing something that does not make any sense is because he is so busy he has not had time to adequately address it and so he is also saying, "Let’s cram more into this very tight timescale."’

But Mr Thomas hit back: ’I am not even going to rise to the challenge of talking about the Safeguarding Bill, except using the Manx word boghtynid because basically that is for another place (Tynwald).’

He said the regulations for the act would be on the agenda for the March sitting of Tynwald.

The minister also accused Mr Hooper of showing ’signs of being an old fogey pretending to be a young fella when it comes to standing orders and some Tynwald procedures’.

However, other MHKs were unconvinced there was any pressing need to rush the legislative process.

Bill Shimmins (Middle) said he had supported previous moves to hold two readings legislation at the same sitting, when there was a clear and pressing need. That was not the case with Charities Registration and Regulation Bill.

He added: ’I would put to the ministers asking us to suspend standing orders that this is misguided because some people will interpret this as an attempt to rush a bill through with reduced scrutiny.’

Mr Thomas rejected concerns that MHKs were busy preparing for the Budget debate due to take place today (Tuesday), so the second reading should not be brought forward.

He added: ’I am disappointed that we cannot begin the policy debate which we could have today about this Charities Registration and Regulation Bill, which is a very important bill and it has been in process for two years.’

Members voted 13-10 against suspending the rules. The only non-minister to support Mr Thomas was Cabinet Office member Dr Alex Allinson (Ramsey).