The chaotic scenes which delayed Micheál Martin’s election as Taoiseach look set to return next week after a meeting designed to break the deadlock around Dáil speaking rights found no agreement.
A proposal to give Michael Lowry’s Regional Independent Group (RIG) 10 minutes of speaking on Opposition time caused uproar in the Dáil last week.
Opposition parties have united over the issue, saying Mr Lowry played a central role in the formation of the Government and has committed to supporting it, meaning he cannot be considered a member of the Opposition and set up a technical group for the purpose of securing Opposition speaking time.
In a bid to allow Dáil business to resume, the Government had previously indicated it was open to finding a solution that was politically palatable for all sides.
Opposition parties were happy to accept an amendment to Dáil speaking rules which would mean that a person who helped negotiate a programme for government and who was committed to supporting the Government could not form a technical group to get Opposition privileges. However, the actual amendment brought forward in a meeting on Thursday read differently.
It proposed that the Regional Independent Group would be recognised as an informal technical group, and that extra time would be allocated in Leaders’ Questions and priority questions on legislation. The question of other speaking time rights would be put off and considered by a reform committee meeting “in due course”.
One source in the meeting described it as a “sh**show” and said it “went in circles”. Another source said Mr Lowry continued to dig his heels in and insist his group should get access to speaking time.
The main issues raised by the Opposition parties during the meeting were around whether Mr Lowry’s group would have access to speaking time for other main slots during Dáil business, and whether the group would have access to committee chair meetings.
Thursday’s meeting went on for more than five hours but sources say a resolution was not forthcoming. A number of Opposition figures were united in their condemnation of the proposals put forward by the new Government chief whip Mary Butler.
Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan said he believed the Government was “doubling down on stroke politics”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the Government plan was “another stroke being proposed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to allow Michael Lowry to sit on Opposition benches.
“You cannot be in Government and Opposition. This is an insulting response to what was agreed in the Dáil last week. Total arrogance on the back of their grubby deal. We won’t stand for it,” she said.
In a submission made to the committee on Monday, Mr Lowry’s group said it was arguing that a TD could, in fact, be involved in a programme for government and speak in Opposition.
“In the last Dáil, the Regional Group had members who consistently voted with the government and some who consistently voted against the government, with others voting both ways on a case-by-case basis. There was never a question raised about their participation in Leaders’ Questions,” his submission said.
Last week, when his election as Taoiseach was delayed because of the row, Mr Martin labelled the scenes as a “subversion of the Irish Constitution”.
“The most fundamental obligation of the Dáil is to elect a taoiseach and, indeed, to elect a government,” Mr Martin told reporters.
“That opportunity was denied today by a premeditated, co-ordinated and choreographed position by the opposition and particularly by Sinn Féin party.”
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