Il gruppo regionale non può formare il gruppo tecnico – Murphy

So far, so good

/s

Remember the government tried to bullshit through they’d received legal advice allowing this

>the letter issued last night, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy said she had been advised that Independent TDs who have agreed to support the government but are not Ministers or Ministers of state are “eligible to be part of a technical group”.

>The letter added: “I am advised that there is long standing precedent to support this position.

It might be perhaps time to release this advise

Verona should resign

Common sense.

Now maybe they can do a little work?

I mean, this was the obvious decision. Why it took the guts of two weeks is bizarre.

Constitutional lawyers can busy themselves with this, no one else.

Ok, the right decision explained the right way, that aligns with common sense. Good.

I’m not really sure about the precedent set by this.

In the last Dáil, Opposition groups routinely voted with the Government: for example, every piece of Covid legislation had cross-party support, as did the botched legislation leading to the failed referendums and the end of the Green Party as a parliamentary group. Should they not have been afforded Opposition speaking rights subsequently?

At which point does an Opposition TD become a Government TD and at which point does a Government TD cease to be so? That still needs clarified.

Also in the last Dáil, Marc MacSharry left the FF PP, where he had previously voted for Micheál Martin for Taoiseach. Should he have been prevented from joining a Technical Group afterwards?

To me, this – and look, it was absolutely a stroke by the Government – is largely because Opposition parties are worried that Independents now outnumber each of them; but it also strengthens the party whip system and is going to have a chilling effect on people who disagree with party leaderships. And I’m in favour of having more independently-minded TDs.

What this does, whether it was the intention or not, is to say to Opposition party TDs “don’t rebel against the leadership or we can expel you from the PP and you’ll not, as an elected TD, be allowed to speak in the Dáil”.

I would like to know, if there is another Eoin Hayes situation, how can it be guaranteed that someone in that position will be able speak in the Dáil.

The Dáil does little enough work, and sits rarely enough, that I believe there is and should be room for every TD who wishes to contribute to a debate, regardless of which side of the chamber they sit on.

hang on a second, Michael Lowry was instrumental in installing Verona Murphy as CC, but now she has ruled against him presumably because Martin & Harris wanted to draw a line under this mess.

Michael Lowry is definitely gonna be pissed off here, he’s been shafted the same day he said [the Oppostions demands are unacceptable](https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2025/0203/1494399-ireland-politics/)

And then that other fella Michael Lowrey, he’ll be mighty pissed off too.

Good times.