DÁIL OPPOSITION PARTIES showed rare unity this week with the speaking rights row, but it doesn’t look like there will be a repeat of it anytime soon. 

It was an unusual sight on the plinth on Wednesday night. 

The party leaders of the Opposition walked out the main doors of Leinster House, side-by-side, making their way over to the media to speak about their common cause. 

Earlier in the day, all hell had broken out in the Dáil over the issue of speaking rights, with concerns raised about those in the Regional Independent group, who were part of government formation talks, getting speaking time that belonged to the Opposition. 

It’s a rarity to see all of the parties singing of the same hymn sheet. But for a long time now, there have been calls for there to be more of a united front from the Opposition benches. 

A united front? 

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy called for a “united left alliance” before the election, stating it could potentially remove Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil from office.

He said cooperation among the left parties on the Opposition benches should be a more formal arrangement.

After taking the final seat in the Dublin constituency in the European elections, Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin made similar calls, stating that it was time for Labour and the Social Democrats to “join forces” and “stop pretending that there’s any difference” between them. 

None of this came to fruition for the general election campaign. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael came out as the majority in forming a government. 

However, Wednesday’s spectacle showed that unity among the Left (and even throwing Independent Ireland into the mix) can work, if the stakes are high. 

During the mayhem in the Dáil, in between all the suspensions of the House, party leaders and party whips were huddled together in groups, strategising their next move.

It was an unusual sight.

Instead of fighting between each other, they were working together against the government bloc. Something many have said for years they should be doing at election time. 

The events clearly bother the Fianna Fáil leader. Micheál Martin accused Sinn Féin of orchestrating and co-ordinating a “subversion of the Irish Constitution”. However, it was pointed out to him that it was actually the entire Opposition that worked together in unison on the issue. 

So could it be repeated over the next Dáil term? 

Those The Journal spoke to on the Opposition benches gave the impression that Wednesday was more of a ‘flash in the pan’ kind of event, rather than something the public will be seeing more of. 

While that doesn’t appear to be a particularly smart move, it would appear that there is still too much disparity between each party for them to join together on the big ticket items that will come down the line in the next five years. 

A once off

One Sinn Féin TD said how much time the Opposition gets to speak in the Dáil is an issue that all the parties can get behind, as it is in all of their interests to hold on to the those precious air-time minutes. 

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However, when it comes to policy matters, each has their own principles and ideals. 

A TD in another Opposition party said there is often cooperation between groups at the Dáil Business Committee on matters, but said it had to be acknowledged that there are significant differences among the parties on a range of issues. 

While they said on the issue of the Occupied Territories Bill there appears to be cross-party support, they added that they didn’t think the events on Wednesday was a sign of things to come, stating that they didn’t see ongoing cooperation across a number of issues happening. 

This TD was also of the view that there was a narrative being spun about a united left, stating that there’s a deliberate strategy by some parties in Opposition who are trying to position themselves as “leaders of the Opposition”, which they said is not something that everyone is going buy into. 

There has been some chatter that one area that the left might be able to get it together on is with this year’s presidential election. 

There has been talk that left-leaning parties might work together to pick one candidate, that would palatable to all, and who they could all get behind. 

It is understood that political parties have had initial conversations about candidate selection, but that it is very early days. There are already lots of names in the mix.

But, given that it appears a show of unity might be a once-in-a-Dáil-term event, it would seem getting everyone to rally behind one presidential candidate might be an uphill battle.