Cork TD Michel Collins joins the fray on Dáil speaking time issue

Independent Ireland leader and Cork South West TD Michael Collins has said that Independent TDs who are supporting Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in Government should get speaking time in the new Dáil — but not from the time allocated to the opposition.

As both main parties seek to get the agreement of grassroots members for the document agreed with the Regional Independent Group which Kerry TDs Michael and Danny Healy Rae have now joined, a row has erupted over the allocation of speaking time in the new Dáil with Government-supporting TDs.

Michael Lowry, Barry Heneghan, Danny Healy Rae, and Gillian Toole, who are supporting the Government, are seeking to form a technical group in the Dáil, despite being one short of the threshold to be recognised as such and standing orders stipulating that the technical groups are part of the opposition.

Before the agreement between the Regional Independent Group, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Healy Raes, the Kerry TDs had been part of the technical group set up by Independent Ireland.

This is not a matter of concern for Mr Collins, who leads a four-strong Independent Ireland contingent.

“As long as we have five TDs in our group, we will have as much speaking time as if we had seven,” he told The Echo.

“Along with the four Independent Ireland TDs, we also have independent Dublin TD Paul Gogarty in our group.”

Entitled

While the Healy Raes have defected to the Regional Independent Technical Group, the Independent Ireland leader said they were entitled to speaking time on the basis of every other party but that members of that group should only be allocated speaking time from the Government’s share of that time, rather than from the opposition’s.

“You can’t be on both sides of the border,” he said, adding that the time allocated to the opposition was limited as it was and should not be further eroded.

In terms of what was absent from the Programme of Government, Mr Collins pointed to the lack of a promise to provide free medical cards to cancer sufferers during their period of treatment for the illness. “This was something we had set as a priority and we’re disappointed that it hasn’t been included in the Programme for Government but it’s something we will continue to fight for,” he said.

“We don’t see much in the Programme for Government that will reduce the waiting time of those on trolleys or on other waiting lists —that’s what we will be focusing on going forward, being as constructive an opposition as possible to solve these issues.”

In its talks with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael regarding the possibility of supporting the Government, the Independent Ireland leader had said that his party regarded the rejection of the Mercosur deal as a ‘red-line issue’.