MINISTER OF STATE at the Department of Finance Robert Troy has said he was “unaware” that ministers have been briefing Micheal Lowry’s Regional Independent Group.

Michael Lowry acted as a key negotiator for a bloc of independent TDs that agreed to support the formation of a Government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

It’s been reported today in The Sunday Times that Lowry said the Regional Independent Group has access to a “rota of ministers” who give regular briefings to its TDs.

Lowry said he chaired meetings of the group and that the group has “direct communication” with ministers and their offices.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Lowry said both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need to “acknowledge and respect” his grouping.

“We had Martin Heydon in, he briefed us on his department and we expect to have Jim O’Callaghan in and Colm Brophy in on immigration too,” Lowry told The Sunday Times.

On today’s The Week In Politics on RTÉ, Troy said he was “unaware” of this until the article was brought to his attention prior to going on air.

“I presume what Michael Lowry is doing is trying to play to his audience back home, that he is hugely influential and that he has an opportunity to meet cabinet ministers,” said Troy.

The Fianna Fáil TD added: “I’ve been a member of the last government and different party ministers would attend the parliamentary parties –  Fine Gael ministers will come into us, or Green ministers would go into either of the other parties.”

File image of Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

When asked if backbench government TDs would feel aggrieved, Troy remarked: “When you have a number of groupings in a government together, and one particular minister from another grouping and there is a particular issue, it’s not unheard of that minister to come in.

“For argument, if it’s an agricultural issue coming up, it wouldn’t be unheard of for [Fine Gael] Agriculture Minister Martin Hayden to come in before Fianna Fáil backbenchers to update them on what’s happening.”

Sinn Féin’s Claire Kerrane described Lowry as the “kingmaker in putting this government together”.

“The government parties have fallen over each other, to be very clear in terms of ‘no deals done, no side deals, nothing in it’, when clearly they’re getting one-on-ones.

“The entire Lowry group, it isn’t just Michael Lowry, are getting these one-on-one, exclusive meetings with ministers, which does give them a special and additional extra in terms of being within government.”

Elsewhere, Labour’s Marie Sherlock said it “reflects the reality of who’s calling the shots in government at the moment”.

“Ultimately, Michael Lowry and his group were able to have those weekly meetings, I’m not sure that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers are having the same access.

“We had this inordinate amount of time in February and March about debating whether the Lowry group is in or out of government – the reality is they’re very clearly in government and I’m very frustrated that we were wasting all that time on that issue when there’s very real issues out there.”

However, Troy then remarked that the grouping is the “Regional Independent Group” and not the “Lowry Group”.

“A lot of the groupings take umbrage at the fact that you constantly tailed them on to one particular individual because of his past.

“There’s other people in that grouping, you keep calling it the ‘Lowry Group’ and it’s the ‘Regional Independent Group’.

“Micheál Martin is the leader of Fianna Fáil – we don’t call it the ‘Martin Group’, it’s the Fianna Fáil party.”