COMMENT: 'A stroke too far' - Rare defeat for Tipperary's Michael Lowry in Dáil chaos

What a shambolic start to the 34th Dáil.

Last Wednesday, January 22 was supposed to be a day of back slapping and photo opportunities.

Families of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent TDs travelled from all over in support of their Teachta Dála father, mother, brother, sister, husband or wife, son or daughter - who had played a role in the formation of the next Government.

And then it all came to a grinding halt when the opposition benches united in disgust at one political stroke too far.

It appeared a visceral reaction, but who’s to say it wasn’t premeditated the way our politicians carry on now, but it was a reaction that was exacerbated by the flippant decision-making of the new Ceann Comhairle, Wexford TD Verona Murphy.

Imagine, uniting all opposition parties and technical groups in one fell swoop. Some feat.

The shenanigans on the Wednesday were disgraceful - and all sides played a role in it.

READ NEXT: 'Shameful display of obstruction,' Michael Lowry fumes as group silenced

But it was the Regional Independent Group which learned the harsh realities of the price of power when just 24 hours later the Ceann Comhairle effectively reversed her earlier decision to let the RIG sit in the opposition seats.

They were to speak from those seats on the day the country elected Micheál Martin as Taoiseach.

That didn’t happen, obviously, due to the multiple suspensions amid widespread disorder on the opposition benches over the RIG group sitting where they were sitting.

Of the nine Independents supporting the Government, five of them will be given Government roles.

The four remaining Independent TDs, former Minister Michael Lowry, Barry Heneghan, Gillian Toole and Danny Healy-Rae, were looking to join a technical group, a mechanism used to allocate opposition speaking time.

READ NEXT: LIVE: Tipperary TD calls conduct in the Dáil 'an insult to democracy'

The leaders of five opposition parties said claiming to be in Government and in opposition at the same time is “farcical”, “not tenable” and “a clear and patent absurdity”. They’re not wrong.

The Ceann Comhairle on Thursday said that during 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. This seemed to be the significant decision that allowed the election of Micheál Martin as Taoiseach to proceed.

At 11.45am on the Thursday, the Dáil was back in action, after the negotiations behind the curtain had taken place.

The Ceann Comhairle formally made a statement. She said that TDs have a “duty” to the public to conduct themselves in a way that is befitting to the office they hold.

“The issue of the recognition of the Regional Independent Group as a technical group is at the core of the dispute,” Verona Murphy said.

READ NEXT: Tipperary TD Michael Lowry appears on RTÉ's Six One following Dáil chaos

She admitted that the wording of Standing Order 170, which deals with technical groups, is ambiguous and open to interpretation.

She confirmed that the Regional Independent Group would not be recognised for today (Thursday), ahead of a final ruling on the matter.

She also confirmed that she would seek advice from a senior counsel on the issue.

Chief Whip Hildegarde Naughton said that the incoming Government would establish a new committee on Dáil Reform.

Tipperary North TD, Alan Kelly, was satisfied with the Ceann Comhairle’s decision and the new committee and said there are “iron clad” conditions that opposition parties must agree with the decision of the committee and he saw it as the end of the matter with regard to the status of the RIG members as “opposition” TDs - which he said was “one stroke too far”.

It seems impossible to land a blow on Deputy Lowry politically, given the commentary around the Moriarty Tribunal the last few weeks, and the tag of the “most controversial TD in the Dáil”.

Many public representatives would crack under the scrutiny, but Lowry has had it for most of his political career.

In spite of that resilience, he suffered a rare defeat this week.

In terms of political manoeuvring, and a “good political move” as he called the election of Verona Murphy as Ceann Comhairle - who had been a member of the Regional Independent Group - Deputy Lowry didn’t see this one coming.

Remember, he is largely credited with whipping up the votes to secure the crucial position in the Dáil for one of his RIG members.

But watching her react and respond to intransigent Dáil Deputies, who wouldn’t “take their seat”, for a few moments her election looked like a mistake as she appeared to instantly lose the confidence of the entire opposition side of the house, well, most of it anyway.

Having said that, how she was treated and shouted down was appalling and as a person, you’d have to feel for her.

There was plenty of commentary on the airwaves of the undertones of misogyny in how she was treated and it was appalling but the circumstances of the politics and her decisions as Ceann Comhairle that led to the perfect storm of circumstances, fed the febrile atmosphere in the chamber.

It was a rough first day in the job, or in the Ceann Comhairle’s case, a rough second day and the third wasn’t much better.
Following the suspension of the Dáil, and the Ceann Comhairle had no choice on that front, a night of negotiating ensued.

And at 11.29am on Thursday, 15 minutes before the Dáil resumed, Deputy Lowry issued a statement and said: “Following intensive discussions with the Ceann Comhairle, Taoiseach and Tánaiste, the Regional Group has decided that, in the interest of not having a repetition of yesterday’s appalling and outrageous scenes in the Dáil, the Group will co-operate with today’s Order of Business.”

Which was effectively their exclusion from proceedings to ensure the same thing didn’t happen again.

He continued: “The Regional Group has agreed to this temporary measure to facilitate the election of Taoiseach and members of the Government. The future positioning of the Group will be referred to the Dáil Reform Committee by way of Dáil motion Thursday night. The committee’s composition will reflect the proportional representation in this Dáil. The aim is to have a decision before the Dáil reconvenes on the 5th of February.”

His use of the word “temporary” here is interesting as many will see Thursday’s decision as final - and anything otherwise could see more Dáil suspensions.

Deputy Lowry recently defended his decision to back Verona Murphy for the role of Ceann Comhairle, saying: “I felt it was a good political move to make to put forward Verona Murphy as Ceann Comhairle, and that was really an important and decisive moment because I felt that once she was elected as Ceann Comhairle, and there had to be a lot of political manoeuvring to make that happen, but once she was elected as Ceann Comhairle, then that put our Regional Group in the driving seat for discussions on the formation of a Government.”

Have no doubt, what’s good for Deputy Lowry is good for Tipperary, forming part of the Government for the next five years with the Regional Independent Group’s role can only lead to good things.

And it was a political masterclass to get to this point, one he even predicted at his General Election campaign launch in The Ragg, that it would be Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and a mix of Independents.

And what better Independent than Michael Lowry to head up negotiations.

But the Holycross man has never needed to be in power to have influence, he’s around too long.

However, in this instance, the mischief of Deputy Lowry and RIG non-Government members, those who are not Ministers, wanting speaking time on the opposition side is illogical and it backfired.

For RIG and Deputy Lowry was Government formation not enough?

All the commitments received in funding, down to community cafés, no.

Deputy Lowry wanted more, and took it one step too far and threw the whole of parliamentary democracy in Ireland under the bus in the process.

The speaking times and RIG non-Ministers sitting at the other side of the house didn’t even come up in Programme for Government negotiations, we are led to believe.

Imagine how furious Simon Harris of Fine Gael or Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil were this week at the temerity of the Independents to want more.

But the two party leaders erred in judgement too, this was not a procedural, Standing Orders hiccup that would be quickly forgotten.

They underestimated the swell of feeling over 50 days off will do to public representatives resigned to opposition for the next five years.

The real “opposition” were fuming and it culminated in a pile on last Wednesday which scuppered the election of Micheál Martin as Taoiseach and required late night negotiations and a climbdown from the new Ceann Comhairle and RIG to get Deputy Martin over the line and the Order of Business approved on the Thursday.

Everyone who had been involved in the Programme for Government firmly had their tails between their legs.

Whatever the Standing Orders, or a favourable Ceann Comhairle say, or even the Dáil committee on reform concludes, this was cheeky, plain and simple.

And it backfired on Deputy Lowry and the whole country saw a resounding defeat for the man who never loses.