Rebels With a Cause

Political correspondent Shaun Connolly says three new blocs of rebel TDs want more speaking time in the Dáil, and may have designs on forming a new party

Roisín Shortall, who resigned her junior ministry last year, is said to be keen not to disappear into the political wilderness.

The Dáil’s restless rebels may want to start a party but the powers-that-be fear things getting out of control.

When the Oireachtas finally stirs itself from its nine-week summer break next month, expect a shake-up on the opposition benches as three new blocs try to assert themselves.

Coalition casualties are so desperate to avoid becoming the walking political dead this could throw-up some very unlikely parliamentary bedfellows as the new gangs of the Dáil battle to be heard.

The “Real Labour” refugees fleeing the austerity agenda; the “Lucindanistas” who quit Fine Gael over the X case legislation; and the “Leftipendents” who are embarrassed to be seen out in public with the right-wingers, exhibitionists, and the odd tax cheat, that they are lumped in with at the moment in the technical group, all know they need to work together to some extent to have any chance against the political machine that crushes any hint of Dáil dissent.

The Real Labour Gang of Four — comprising Roisín Shortall, Colm Keaveney, Patrick Nulty, and Tommy Broughan, have already sounded out the Ceann Comhairle about being recognised as a distinct group and allowed more speaking time, but the dogma of the Dáil’s rigid rules are in the way and the big boy parties are not about to yield territory.

Talk of a realignment of Real Labour and the Leftipendents around ex-minister Ms Shortall is still just talk — but movement is expected in the autumn after informal discussions about the way ahead between the two blocs.

The move is likely to be an arrangement aimed at getting more Dáil time, rather than a formal new party, but one insider said: “As we approach the next election, you could see a loose banner being unfurled over us, like the United Left Alliance was, but it is still very early days.”

A source close to Ms Shortall said: “A new party is possible — there is certainly a void there and people who voted Labour last time, but will not do so again, are looking for something new on the moderate left.”

What makes things tricky is that only one technical group is allowed in each Dáil and things involving the technical group are quite, well, technical, so the situation is not always clear-cut.

While a new technical group cannot be formed in the Dáil, a new political party can as long as it has at least seven members and is registered as such with the clerk of the Dáil. The snag is that TDs are officially counted as members of the party they were elected with, so it would be down to the Ceann Comhairle and the committee on procedure and privileges to rule on any changes to standing orders.

In the slip-stream of Real Labour and the anti-abortion Lucindanistas centred around former Europe minister Lucinda Creighton, are the former Fine Gaeler Denis Naughten, who walked out over a broken election pledge to protect Roscommon hospital services, and Willie Penrose, who quit Labour due to local issues, bringing the Coalition’s casualties to 11.

Throw-in half a dozen or so Leftipendents like John Halligan, Catherine Murphy, and Thomas Pringle, and you have more than 10% of the Dáil looking for greater speaking time and a shake-up of the system.

Mr Halligan feels Labour deputies need to make up their minds: “The disaffected Labour TDs don’t know what to do at the moment, to hang on or not, but they need to decide what to do soon.”

As Ireland is already one of the most executive-dominated parliaments in the Western world — even before the Seanad is flushed down the Leinster House garbage chute — banding together is the only way for voices cut adrift from the party system to be heard.

As chief whip Paul Kehoe makes it clear, no one is going to do the whipless wonders any favours.

“I don’t have any plans to change standing orders to accommodate people who have lost the party whip. I am focusing on the wider agenda of Dáil reform,” Mr Kehoe says firmly.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, no doubt, has his own name for any grouping Ms Shortall has a hand in — “The Nasty Party” — if his pointedly personal attack on her is anything to go by.

The Labour leader branded his ex-colleague “nasty and bitter” for the way in which she resigned last year after repeated public clashes with Health Minister James Reilly, but Ms Shortall is still popular with the grassroots.

“He wants to try and force her out because Roisín is the iconic representation of Gilmore’s weakness in Government,” as one TD unimpressed by Mr Gilmore’s performance put it.

Labour rebels expect Ms Shortall to formally quit the party on the eve of its post-budget November conference for maximum impact, while some dream of Joan Burton quitting over the scale of welfare cuts and triggering a leadership battle.

“Now 19 councillors, five TDs, a senator and an MEP have quit Labour — that’s a lot of people gone for the leadership to pretend there isn’t a problem,” said one TD.

But Mr Gilmore and Taoiseach Enda Kenny remain new party poopers because they still control the political kitty.

“There may be a longing for a new party, but you need funding, not just anger — and the big parties keep their greedy little hands tightly in control of the leader’s allowance which is doled out to them on the basis of how many TDs got elected last time, not how many are with them now,” said a Labour insider.

Ms Shortall is keen not to disappear as yet another voice lost in the wilderness, so at the moment her theme song would be: “It’s My Party And I’ll Try If I Want To.”