Regional Independents cannot pretend to be part of the opposition, says Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said: 'There are no circumstances in which Michael Lowry should be allowed, or can be allowed, to pretend that he is a member of the opposition.' Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos
Attempts by the Regional Independent Group to receive opposition speaking time is an “insult to the collective intelligence of the Irish electorate”, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has claimed.
She said Michael Lowry must not be permitted to sit on the opposition benches as the Tipperary TD has already pledged to support the government over the next five years.
The row over Dáil speaking time erupted last week, with the ensuing chaos delaying the election of a new Taoiseach and government by a day.
“There are no circumstances in which Michael Lowry should be allowed, or can be allowed, to pretend that he is a member of the opposition,” Ms McDonald said.
“What that means is, he cannot have access to opposition speaking time and he certainly cannot be part of a charade wherein he questions the Taoiseach in Leaders’ Questions, to hold a Taoiseach he supports to account.
Ms McDonald said she recognises Mr Lowry has a mandate as a TD elected to the Dáil, but pointed out he was the lead negotiator for the Regional Independents.
“The combined opposition have made our position very, very clear. We have a job to do as the opposition and we will not allow Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to encroach on the opposition, to blur the lines, to create confusion,” Ms McDonald said.
“And to pretend that one of their own TDs would be the one to hold them to account. That clearly cannot stand in any circumstances.”
The Sinn Féin leader said it must be gotten right, as further meetings of the Dáil’s reform committee are to take place later this week.
Meanwhile, Ms McDonald said that co-operation between left-wing parties to select a joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election makes sense. She said Sinn Féin has not given the matter a “huge amount of space to debate” it as of yet.
“It would make sense to have a joint approach, if that’s possible but we really need to discuss this out. Not just us, but the party needs to take a view on what we might do,” Ms McDonald said.
Any future president would need to have the same “cultural depth” as incumbent President Michael D Higgins, as well as being committed to Irish unity.
The Sinn Féin leader was speaking as she announced a reshuffle of her frontbench. She is keeping key TDs in their current positions. This includes Pearse Doherty in finance, Eoin Ó Broin in housing and David Cullinane in health.
However, Ms McDonald acknowledged that the party’s policies needed to move on and that “nothing ever stands still”.
“The circumstances in which we live move on, so no policy platform is going to stand still. Whether that’s housing, whether that’s health, whether it’s the policy work that we did in the arts,” Ms McDonald said.
Asked if this means Sinn Féin will be moving on issues like the Help-to-Buy scheme, which it pledged to abolish, Ms McDonald said the party would retain the basics of their existing housing plan.
“But of course, everything that we look at we will modernise and update,” Ms McDonald said.
While she criticised help-to-buy, Ms McDonald said people should avail of it when buying their homes. However, she said that a government which relies on schemes like Help-to-Buy as long-term supports has “raised the white flag of surrender on affordable housing”.
Changes in the reshuffle include Cork TD Donnachadh Ó Laoghaire moving to cover foreign affairs, while Mairéad Farrell returns to public expenditure.
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