World of Politics with Harry McGee

I’ve been writing about politics full-time for 22 years now and even though there’s a certain ‘rinse and repeat’ aspect to each Dáil term, you’re still getting stopped in your tracks by what we euphemistically call ‘surprise developments’.

I should have seen the one coming last week. The Regional Independent Group had made a brazen move.  In my days of covering hurling and football matches for the Connacht, it would have been described as an “opportunist goal”.

Michael Lowry announced that the four members not taking ministerial roles would be seeking speaking time in the Dáil as part of an opposition technical group. The two TDs from Aontú would join them as would the Offaly’s Independent TD Carol Nolan. Tipperary South Independent Mattie McGrath later went into the group.

Of course, this was always going to lead to a commotion.

You would have the absurdity of an Independent TD, Barry Heneghan, being in an Opposition group (with Opposition speaking time) while at the same time performing the role as deputy government chief whip (a non-Cabinet role).

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy became politically independent on taking up her role. But you could not divorce that from the reality that she was once a member of the regional group. Indeed, the group has insisted that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael back her candidacy for Ceann Comhairle as part of the Government formation deal.

So she went for her first dive in the deep end of Irish politics, without having any blow-up armbands. A row flared up. She met the whips. She issued a letter saying the four Independents – Lowry, Gillian Toole, Heneghan and Danny Healy-Rae – would be recognised as part of an Opposition group.

She cited precedent from the past, including the Independents who were part of the Fine Gael government in 2016, and also Fianna Fáil’s confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael in the same Dáil term.

Problem, was that neither really dovetailed neatly with the position of the Independents this time around. Back in 2016, the Independents who did not get ministerial posts did not have enough numbers to form a technical group. And Fianna Fáil, back then, was not in Government and did not support the government.

Pictured: Baptism of fire…Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy.