Dáil reform will be needed to hold new government to account

ON observing the results of an opinion poll, Spike Milligan once remarked: “One day, the don’t knows will get in, and then where will we be?”

His answer probably lies in the incoming Dáil which will be composed of a disparate array of independents and “others” who will form a significant part of the opposition with a strengthened Sinn Féin and diminished Fianna Fáil.

How these independent TDs organise themselves will be crucial to the next Dáil where a formidable opposition will be needed more than ever to hold the 110-seat coalition to account.

A strong Government will be worth nothing to the country without a strong opposition to keep it under careful scrutiny, exposing its mistakes.

While there’ll be many loud, exercised well-informed voices on the opposition benches, it will lack a strong and coherent voice that would be offered by a main opposition party.

Fianna Fáil will be the largest party in opposition with an expected 19 seats — just slightly bigger than Sinn Féin with 13 and equal to independents and others expected to have 19 also.

But without representation in over half of the 43 constituencies, without a single woman TD and with just one representative in Dublin, Fianna Fáil is very poorly equipped to lead the opposition.

It is also facing a Government that has six times the number of TDs as it has and given its own poor record in Government, will find it hard to appear credible in its attacks on the new administration.

Fianna Fáil cannot spend its time in the upcoming Dáil opposing the harsh budget cuts to come, as it signed the deal that has lead to these cuts. It has made clear that it would support any measures imposed by the incoming Government if they were broadly in line with its proposals outlined in its four-year plan.

Fianna Fáil will find it hard to find a voice on anything other than economics given that it doesn’t have a defined ideology and has not yet decided what it stands for when it is no longer the populist “natural” party of Government.

And so it will find itself in competition with Sinn Féin who will attempt to sideline Fianna Fáil to become the most relevant opposition voice.

One of its new TDs, Mary Lou McDonald, yesterday promised the party would provide “strong, effective and lively opposition”.

It will be bolstered by the election of its leader, Gerry Adams, who would be expected to grab headlines with his charges against Enda Kenny in leaders’ questions every Tuesday and Wednesday.

But he could be limited in his effectiveness by his weakness on economic issues.

This leaves the 17 independents and others to become the strongest voices in opposition.

Depending on how they arrange themselves, the large group of independent and United Left Alliance TDs have the potential to be either the weakest or the strongest attack-dogs of the Government.

On the one hand, their fractured nature and wide range of policy platforms, might lead to an array of individuals trying to steal the limelight while ignoring their responsibilities as opposition TDs.

On the other hand, if they organise effectively, combining their range of expertise and experiences, they could prove a robust defender of the public interest and an extremely effective watchdog of the Government.

Independent TDs or parties with fewer than seven TDs do not have the same rights to speaking time, asking parliamentary questions or taking part in leaders’ questions unless they form a “technical group”. Under the rules, there must be at least seven TDs, or a majority of independents, to form a group, meaning it needs 10 of the 19 independents.

The five left-wing TDs who are part of the United Left Alliance umbrella group have been engaged in talks about setting up a new party. This would include Joe Higgins and Clare Daly of the Socialist Party, Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins of People Before Profit, and Seamus Healy, formerly of the Workers and Unemployed Action Group.

If it fails to win any more members, the group will fall short of the magic number of seven needed to be entitled to the full rights of a Dáil party.

Mr Higgins said yesterday he wants the “archaic” rules of the House to be changed to allow this newly formed party have full rights with just five members.

This would leave 14 TDs to form a technical group and this will be discussed at a meeting of independents today which is expected to include Finian McGrath, Maureen O’Sullivan, Catherine Murphy, Mick Wallace, Shane Ross and Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan.

But if the new left-wing party only has five TDs, the technical group still needs the majority of independents and smaller parties, according to the Standing Orders, meaning it still needs 10.

Mr McGrath, a long-serving independent, wants the rules changed to allow more than one group in the House. He believes this could mean there is room for possibly two technical groups so that all independents can give a voice to all the views represented by the election result.

Any change to the rule book would require the approval of the majority of the Dáil. Faced with the prospect of a wide range of challengers from across the floor, it is something a Fine Gael/Labour government would almost certainly vote down.

But Mr McGrath said that Fine Gael and Labour have been talking a lot about political reform, and allowing these rule changes would show how strong their intentions are.