The self-styled combined or united Opposition parties in the Dáil are at a crossroads. They must now decide if there is much mileage left in the speaking rights row.
After Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy comfortably breezed through the no-confidence motion tabled against her, the hotly contested speaking time for other members finally took place last week. When Independent TD Carol Nolan took to her feet to speak in the inaugural slot, some Opposition TDs walked out of the chamber in protest. The gesture – accompanied by shuffles rather than shouts – was in stark contrast to the heated scenes just days before. Opposition deputies’ rambunctious roars were now replaced by the creaks of the protesting TDs’ chairs and their muffled footsteps as they left the chamber.
Today the Dáil Reform Committee is due to meet to discuss proposals to allow the long-delayed formation of Oireachtas committees that had been held up by the speaking rights melee. Opposition TDs must decide if they can, or indeed should, continue to delay the committee formation to eke out more from this issue. They also need to consider whether presenting themselves as a combined Opposition benefits them all equally.
Government parties clearly have every intention of continuing their arrangement with Michael Lowry, including ramming through changes to parliamentary procedure to facilitate that deal. The outcome of the no-confidence vote has shown they have the ability to do so. While Opposition TDs can make objections as principled and as loudly as they wish, they simply do not have the numbers where it counts.
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Opposition parties will also be conscious that they can’t maintain such intensely chaotic scenes for another four years or so until the next election takes place. Although the row brought valuable attention to the deal with Lowry and reminded voters of his unedifying past, the shock value will quickly wane.
And while an aggressive approach might suit Sinn Féin’s attempt to re-set itself as more anti-establishment in this Dáil term, and shake off the “government-in-waiting” tag that hampered the party in the last election, voters beyond their core base will find repeated antics tiresome. This will be especially true for more moderate voters who back the Social Democrats, Greens and Labour.
Indeed, Sinn Féin has the most to gain from the optics of a combined Opposition. Positioning Mary Lou McDonald at the helm of this new cross-party political force enables Sinn Féin to present voters with a potential path to power for future government formation in light of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s refusal to enter coalition with them. However, the smaller Opposition parties will be conscious that Sinn Féin remains a toxic brand for many. They will be nervous about being seen to be bit-part players in a Sinn Féin psychodrama over which their own voters perceive them as having little agency.
Opposition parties will also be aware that – unlike stunts in the Dáil chamber to grab that day’s news headlines – the decision to delay the formation of Oireachtas committees would have deeper consequences. The committees provide a valuable opportunity for Opposition TDs to scrutinise the Government over its ongoing failures on the housing crisis, healthcare crisis and failure to deliver disability services, to name just a few. A decision by the Opposition to postpone the formation of Oireachtas committees could play into the Government’s hands and help it evade much-needed scrutiny.
All parties of the combined Opposition will be conscious that this speaking rights row has come at the expense of them highlighting many issues of far more serious concern to the general public than parliamentary procedure. Last month record homelessness figures were published but got scarcely any political focus, despite polls consistently showing housing is the number one issue of concern cited by voters.
The moments in which Simon Harris and Micheál Martin seemed most ill at ease in recent weeks came when Sinn Féin’s deputy leader Pearse Doherty was challenging them on failures to live up to funding commitments for services for children with disabilities. He cited the scandal of one mother in Donegal who had been left feeling like her child was used as a “prop” for a Government funding announcement that didn’t materialise.
The emotive story got to the heart of a duplicity within the Government that was of far greater consequence than the Lowry deal, however it gained only a little traction before ultimately being subsumed into the whirlwind of the speaking rights row.
TDs got an abrupt reminder of life beyond the Dáil chamber through the severe tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump that are projected to throw the future of some 60,000 Irish jobs into question. Opposition parties must know it’s time to quietly drop their focus on the speaking rights row and instead apply the same combined opposition framework to more pertinent issues.
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For example, when the Government’s homelessness figures for April are published at the end of this month, they could consider holding joint press conferences and protests, or synchronising Dáil contributions on the topic for maximum publicity. Through doing so, they can maintain a unified front and anti-Government edge, while sidestepping the diminishing returns of being seen to solely rage against the Lowry deal.
Siobhán Fenton is a writer living in Belfast. She was a senior communications adviser to Sinn Féin in the last Dáil term, including as the party’s deputy head of press in the Oireachtas from 2022-2024
