Regional independents not allowed on opposition benches in latest speaker ruling
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The speaker of the Irish parliament has said she will not recognise speaking time for a group of independents at the centre of a dispute that prevented the nomination of a new taoiseach. Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy said that, during Thursday’s proceedings, she would recognise two other technical groups but not the collection of TDs that contain independents who supported the formation of the incoming government.
She is expected to seek further advice for future sittings. It comes as the Dail parliament is to reconvene a day after a chaotic row over how speaking time should be allocated to the government-affiliated independents. A meeting of opposition party leaders is taking place on Thursday morning in order to agree a resolution before the Dail resumes.
Efforts to appoint an Irish premier after November’s general election failed as the opposition disrupted proceedings to protest against the matter on Wednesday. Central to the row is a move to allocate opposition speaking time to the independents. Opposition parties said this would dilute the practice of holding the government to account and eat into their time to raise issues.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin was expected to be nominated as taoiseach on Wednesday when the Dail reconvened, as part of a coalition deal with Fine Gael, the regional independent group and Kerry brothers Michael and Danny Healy-Rae. On Thursday morning, Mr Martin and Simon Harris said the election of a taoiseach “must happen today”.
