DUBLIN — Ireland’s governing coalition got off to a rattled start Wednesday as its new member, a loose-cannon group of rural independents, insisted on holding positions in both the government and the opposition.
This strange outcome from November’s election triggered furious interventions from the floor that forced the speaker, Verona Murphy, to suspend parliament three times and to finally give up after five deadlocked and at times deafening hours. With no solution in sight, they’ll try again Thursday morning.
The uproar stymied the key first act of government formation: the election of Micheál Martin as Ireland’s next prime minister, a.k.a. the Taoiseach or “chief.” It meant he couldn’t form his new, heavily reshuffled 15-member Cabinet as expected.
Eventually, these positions will be shared between his Fianna Fáil party and its main government partner, Fine Gael, whose leader Simon Harris will become deputy premier and foreign minister, Martin’s roles in the last government.
But crucially, whereas their two center-ground parties previously maintained a parliamentary majority in alliance with the left-wing Green Party, this time they’ve turned to nine conservative lawmakers who style themselves as the Regional Independents. It’s a fragile collection of individuals, not an official party.
‘A mockery of democracy’
This coalition combo descended into an embarrassing mess Wednesday that emboldened and unified the normally splintered opposition. Martin and Harris, by contrast, were left looking foolish.
That’s because, to win the Regional Independents’ support, Martin and Harris agreed to give most of them higher-paid positions as junior ministers in the new government. They also gave the officially neutral and far more lucrative role of speaker to Murphy, also a Regional Independent.
Yet those Regional Independents who have remained simply lawmakers are insisting on challenging the government from the opposition benches, even though they’re pledged to vote with the government — and Martin and Harris have agreed to that seemingly “have your cake and eat it” position, too.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, whose Irish republican party remains the largest opposition voice alongside four smaller left-wing parties, was first to object.
McDonald called it “a cynical and unprecedented ruse from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to place their independent cronies, supporters of the government, on the opposition benches and to afford to them the same speaking rights as genuine parties of opposition.”
“I have seen brazen actions by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in past governments,” she said, “but this takes the biscuit.”
Murphy failed to take control of proceedings, nervously fiddling with her glasses and banging her gavel against the speaker’s ceremonial bell as a string of opposition lawmakers fixed her in their sights.
Ignoring instructions to zip it and take their seats, they demanded to see the confidential legal advice Murphy had received that supposedly permits her Regional Independent comrades to receive a share of the opposition’s speaking time.
Richard O’Donoghue, a lawmaker from a rival grouping of rural conservatives called Independent Ireland, accused Murphy of “a massive conflict of interest.”
“If this was any court of this land, a judge would not be allowed to preside over a family case, would they?” he said, calling on Murphy “in the interest of fairness to step aside.”
Sinn Féin demanded a suspension, noting that under Murphy’s existing instructions, Sinn Féin’s 39 lawmakers would receive the same 10-minute window to speak as four Regional Independents.
“You’re making a mockery of democracy here,” Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told Murphy. “They should have speaking rights from the government side. That’s where they belong.”
Government and opposition whips came close to hammering out a compromise. It would have required Murphy to make a final call on the Regional Independents’ speaking rights once a new parliamentary “reform committee,” due to sit for the first time Thursday, considers the matter.
But when the government chief whip, Hildegarde Naughton, claimed a deal had been reached and called for a leadership debate to proceed, bedlam ensued that finally brought the house down. Until 10 a.m. Thursday, at least, when the acrimony could begin anew.
Ireland’s government face-plants on first day as partners trigger bedlam
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