Sitting behind the wheel on the long drive from Dublin to Donegal, Sinn Féin TD Padraig MacLochlainn was seething. Pulling his car over, he decided to record some comments about what had just transpired in a meeting earlier that day. This was the first sign that trouble lay ahead.
It was Thursday, January 16th. Party whips had met earlier to arrange the plan of action for the brief return of the Dáil, when Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin would be proposed as taoiseach.
Opposition TDs, when handed the papers detailing the day’s events, spotted what they thought was an error.
Some of the Regional Independent Group (RIG), who had struck a deal to support the government, were to get 10 minutes’ speaking time along with other Independents, as though they were effectively on the Opposition benches.
Just the previous day, Regional Independent convenor Michael Lowry stood on the Leinster House plinth and revealed details of the newly approved government deal between his group, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
He told journalists: “I’m delighted our group has been recognised in a very tangible way, in a practical way. At the outset I stated clearly that we would function as a group, that we would act as a group, that we would negotiate as a group. As part of that negotiation, we also said that we had to be working within the government, not from the outside.
“We’re in this for five years. We are in it for five budgets … the two super junior ministers Sean Canney and Noel Grealish, those two gentlemen will sit at the cabinet table, will have access to all cabinet papers, contribute at cabinet, and Sean will attend all of the leaders’ meetings on our behalf.” No one was left under any illusions: the RIG had its policies implemented in the programme for government, wanted to be on the inside, was acting as a group, would sit at the cabinet table, read confidential cabinet memos, and be privy to the most high-level meeting in the country: the leaders’ pre-cabinet meeting.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the move by members of the RIG (those who had not been given ministries) to form a technical group and nab key speaking rights would cause backlash in the Opposition.
What is surprising is that the incoming government let the situation spiral to such a degree that it temporarily derailed the election of Martin, and left his disappointed family looking on in disbelief from the distinguished visitors’ gallery a full week after the problem had first appeared.
Chaos in Leinster House: how the day unfolded and what happens next
Lowry and the Ceann Comhairle
Important in this saga was the new Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy – who herself was a member of the RIG. The idea to put her into that role came from Lowry late last year, and Murphy has previously said she was so surprised at the suggestion that she wondered if he was serious. When the count took place for the Ceann Comhairle vote in a Seanad anteroom, it was Lowry who stood over her shoulder. Key to her success was the backing of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs on the request of those party leaders.
It is unfortunate, then, that the first major dispute that landed on Murphy’s desk involved claims of unfairness in how her previous group was behaving. On Friday, January 17th, Murphy informed TDs in a letter that there was a legal precedent for what the RIG wanted. Although she asked for submissions on the topic, the letter only served to deepen the level of concern on Opposition benches. Submissions and legal advices flew back and forth, to no one’s satisfaction. The “plan”, if it could be called that, was still for the RIG members and others to be allowed to speak in their new technical group on a temporary basis, but not on government time. Behind the scenes, a rare thing was happening as the furore intensified: the Opposition was coming together en masse.
On the government side, there was a certain dismissiveness about the issue. As his party ratified the programme for government at a special ardfheis in Dublin last Sunday, Martin responded to questions about the deepening row on speaking rights by saying, “I am not as excited about it as the Opposition are. The public aren’t as excited about an issue like that.” Later that day, he seemed irked when repeatedly questioned about his decision to strike a government deal with Lowry, who he had once been so critical of following the release of the Moriarty tribunal report. In any event, the Dáil’s business committee met early this week to agree the business for Wednesday, the day when Martin would become taoiseach for a second time. Those on the government side left that meeting believing an agreement was in place on the speaking row. But Opposition parties – including Labour, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Soc Dems and Independent Ireland – say they registered their clear dissent.
The Dáil returned on Wednesday morning, with Martin’s family looking on with pride as he prepared for the big vote. Objections were again raised by various parts of the Opposition. The Ceann Comhairle assured TDs that a process was in place to address their concerns, but the heat in the chamber was rising. The sitting was suspended for 20 minutes. It resumed amid further acrimony. There was another suspension, before Government Chief Whip Hildegarde Naughton suggested a meeting of the party whips. This is when the real chaos began to reign.
The showdown
By all accounts given, the meeting was something of a showdown. One witness in Leinster House said Padraig MacLochlainn and Michael Lowry went toe to toe, and were at loggerheads before they had even stepped into the room. Verona Murphy was not present in order to allow a political agreement to be reached between TDs and the clerk.
“It was pretty heated. There was disquiet about the presence of Michael Lowry and that got heated, too. It was very tense.”
A second source who was present said MacLochlainn was “furious”, mainly with Lowry.
“He looked at Lowry and said: this whole day is because of you. You are the centre of this.”
Asked what Lowry’s response was, the source said that Lowry insisted the Dáil rules backed him up. “He basically said he wouldn’t be silenced, that he was an Independent TD and had a right to act as such.” The meeting broke up after the clerk emphasised the importance of ensuring a functioning democracy. The government believed a landing zone had been found with Sinn Féin and the wider Opposition. Lowry was seen afterwards pacing underneath a portrait of Garret FitzGerald, in what appeared to be a strained conversation.
Each of three whips briefed their parties. During one of these meetings, Labour TDs looked out the window to see Lowry on the plinth below, outlining to journalists what the way forward might be. According to multiple sources, this further inflamed tensions, as there was a feeling he was jumping the gun on talks. In any event, shortly before 4pm, Lowry was approached by The Irish Times and Irish Independent and asked if a resolution had been found. He said it had, that a Dáil reform committee would be set up to examine the issue and find a solution, and everyone was happy to allow the taoiseach to be elected at 4pm. The bells of Leinster House rang out, and TDs filed into the chamber.
Within minutes it was clear something was afoot. Whatever tentative agreement the government thought was in place appears to have fallen apart on the floor of the Dáil. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald approached the Dáil clerk, and whatever she said, he looked stricken. When the government tried to press ahead with the election of the taoiseach, the Opposition rose to its feet – and the whole thing was abandoned. Martin approached his family and mouthed the word “tomorrow”.
Amid pandemonium, he repeated this to the press gallery, as did (then current) taoiseach Simon Harris. Martin angrily dismissed an approach from Labour’s Ivana Bacik, who sources say was trying to ask him whether he would meet with other party leaders to find a way through the impasse. And although the clearly furious Fianna Fáil leader went on to give a press conference with Harris in which he accused the Opposition of undermining the Constitution, he did go on to hold a meeting with the other leaders the next morning. This came about after late-night wrangling brokered by Bacik and other leaders around a compromise. As part of the compromise, Dáil rules would be changed so that any party that was involved in negotiating a programme for government could not form a technical group and take Opposition time.
It is understood that both Martin and Harris told that meeting of party leaders that they were not aware of Lowry and the RIG members’ plan to set up their group. What will follow now is another week of wrangling on exactly what that compromise looks like, before the Dáil returns on February 5th.
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