Gavan Reilly: Don’t expect the Government to fight for Gillian’s speaking time

Readers who have been paying attention to the ongoing tit-for-tat about Dáil speaking rights will know that the universal demand of ‘true’ opposition parties is for the Regional Independents (including Gillian Toole) to be assigned speaking slots from within the government’s allocated time. The government’s counterpoint – resisted last week, and eventually then stalled altogether, due to separate decisions by Verona Murphy – is to create extra speaking slots for the Regionals, so as not to dilute the opposition’s rights.

Under the radar, we’re seeing some of that play out this week. The first new piece of legislation coming before the Dáil is a bill with two purposes – one, to allow for a fourth ‘super junior’ minister to receive an allowance for attending Cabinet meetings; and two, to raise the legal cap on junior ministers overall from 20 to 23.

And, when TDs debate that legislation this Wednesday, a special speaking slot is being created for the unattached members – so after the government, Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and others all speak, there’s still a special speaking slot ringfenced off for the TDs who find themselves unable to form a technical group.

Moreover, the other big furniture for this Dáil, like the rota for Leaders’ Questions and groups who get to jump the queue at ministers’ question time, are all already set set out. That is to say: when a minister shows up to take pre-scheduled questions at 9pm on a Thursday, the two (surviving) technical groups already know they’ll get two of the first five questions. And, likewise, Labour and the Social Democrats know they get two Leaders’ Questions slots per week, with the technical groups getting one.

It’s a delicate equilibrium, and right now it suits everyone except a tiny few. Why would any government want to go back and unpick the routine they’ve already set?