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LAST UPDATE | 4 Dec 2024
IN THE WAKE of the election, eight independent TDs are coming together and registering as a technical group in Leinster House.
The ‘Regional Group’ met today and agreed to register as a technical group, which are groupings that can be formed by independents as a way to secure more speaking time in the Dáil – and will likely now also play a role in terms of communications with larger parties about the prospect of independents propping up a government.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are collectively only a few seats short of the numbers needed to form a government and are eyeing up a potential partnership between the two of them and others, whether that be with a smaller party or independents.
The eight TDs that have signed up to the Regional Group are Sean Canney, Marian Harkin, Barry Heneghan, Noel Grealish, Michael Lowry, Kevin (‘Boxer’) Moran, Verona Murphy and Gillian Toole.
These types of groups have sometimes played an important role in the past in government formation after an election when one party does not win enough seats to hold power alone.
Galway East TD Sean Canney and Longford–Westmeath TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, two of the members of the Regional Group, were previously part of the 2016 Fine Gael-led government as part of a group of six independents known as the Alliance group.
Canney and Moran shared the role of Minister of State for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief during the lifetime of that government.
In a recent interview with The Journal, Canney said that was a “stable government for four years“, and that it “wasn’t independents” that ultimately led to that government ending, saying also that he takes issue with any suggestion that independents create instability.
Asked about his priorities if he was involved in government formation talks, Canney said there are regional infrastructure issues that need to be tackled, such as railway lines in the west of the country and traffic congestion in Galway, but also insisted independents don’t just focus on “parish pump politics” and that his “biggest issue” would be about accelerating housing construction.
Wexford TD Verona Murphy, another member of the Regional Group formed today, was elected to the Dáil for the first time in 2020 as an independent. She previously ran in a 2019 by-election as a Fine Gael candidate but the party did not select her for their ticket again due to criticism over comments Murphy made about migrants.
In an interview on RTÉ Prime Time yesterday evening, Murphy wouldn’t confirm whether she had spoken to anyone in Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael but said that she has been “on the phone for hours and hours” over the last few days.
She was part of a group in the last Dáil known as the Regional Independents Group, which also included Seán Canney, Noel Grealish and Michael Lowry.
Of the eight TDs in the group, only Gillian Toole (Meath East) and Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North) are starting their first term in the Dáil.
Heneghan is understood to be a protégé of Finian McGrath, a former TD who was himself a member of the Independent Alliance grouping and served as junior minister for disability during the 2016-2020 government.
The Journal politics team has reported that it understands that Heneghan already has a ‘wish list’ ready engaging in any discussions about government formation talks.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin are each convening a meeting of their parliamentary party today to determine their plan of action during government formation talks.
Labour, the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin have also agreed to hold meetings with each other this week.
Fianna Fáil secured the largest number of seats of any party in this election (48). Sinn Féin is the second largest on 39 but neither Micheál Martin nor Mary Lou McDonald appear inclined to go into coalition with each other.
That leaves Fine Gael as the next largest parliamentary party with 38 seats. Fine Gael is open to going into coalition with Fianna Fáil but has signalled that it would want ‘parity of esteem’ that would give it equal footing despite having fewer seats.
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DIT – The city is our campus…….HA
The Edge studied in DIT. Kevin street for a while – then go a better offer
Samuel Beckett did not describe Trinity students as ‘rich and thick.’ He in fact said that in response to a reprimand by the Head Master at Campbell College in Belfast who told him he was teaching “the cream of Ulster.”
“Yes,” replied Beckett, ‘rich and thick.”
TheDublinJournal.ie
Not defending trinners or anything, but Russian-English Dictionaries of Diplomacy have probably been very handy this last week.
UCD is like Fianna Fáil.. It skilfully combines the rural gombeen with the south Dublin jackeen. Accent and appearance aside they’re pretty much the same thing.
“Oh my gawd, Fintan. They have compoiled an article in thejourno which bundles us Trinners with the loikes of UCD. Even worse, they mention the college the girl you met last week was from when you really decided to rough it – was that DCU or DIT?”
A report last year showed that the colleges with the highest % in employment 6 months after graduation were UL & WIT so take that Dublin.
Tesco check-out doesn’t count.
A fact they don’t like to face up to. I went to UL for my degree and did my h.dip in UCD. I was honestly gob smacked at people in Dublin telling what ‘an amazing’ campus UCD has. It is, by comparison with UL, ugly, insufficient and out dated. Also, the standard of lecturing and organisation left a lot to be desired. The academic standard in UL was very competitive, more along the lines of the ethos of the old RTCs, which was a really healthy thing.
Maybe UL has an advantage as it secured a lot of private funding over the last 25-30 years, especially from Irish-Americans. However, that’s down to their own hard work and genius. No offense to UCD, but it simply doesn’t compare in most facets.
TCD 61st in the world, UCD 139th….UL 451-500. Bit you’re right, UL is pretty.
I’m afraid it’s about more than being pretty, which UL certainly is. UCD focuses hugely, probably disproportionally, on publications of papers and this is one of the core criteria of QS ranking of universities. This was an expressed opinion of a h.dip supervisor from UCD I spoke to a couple of years back. It’s a financial strategy more than an educational aim. And that is the problem with UCD. Maybe that clarifies it somewhat for you. My experience of both was vastly different. All institutions have their problems, but UL seems to have a very clear, structural development alongside very high academic standards. Sorry if it that doesn’t sit well with your assumptions .
I spent a year in UL, left because of those much-vaunted standards you speak of. I don’t see how having a staff that focus primarily on the publication of research is a negative, but then again an institution like UL with a local/regional outlook really can’t be compared to national and international institutions like TCD and UCD.
UL and WIT may have higher employment rates at first because they teach fairly specific degrees which can be directly applied to the job market.
The NUIs and Trin teach broader degrees across a wider spectrum of fields which can’t in many cases be directly applied to the Irish job market. This is why there is a difference.
Source please?
Adverts.ie should stick to advertising unwanted sofas and not writing “funny” articles. That was cack
The Ugg Boot winner in BESS in Trinners by a long shot, DBS a mere runner up
In a way we all have a Doctor of something in life, be it a father a mother a hard working grafter, or just even in a simple dog walker.
What?
A love doctor maybe?
Definitely a trinity head
Think your doctor is looking for you, it’s happy pill time
DAFUQ you on about lad?!
Shut your hole
Learnt all I needed to learn in the bestest collage in ireland. Mount Joy.
bestest ? im dubious bruv
Also collage.
Mountjoy is one word…
* I learned
He’s a collage artiste for chrissake, stop taking him to task on his grammar.
NCI – NOT a COMPLETE INSTITUTE
Sounds about right. Just hope its inproved sunce my day
Conor if only I’d remembered dublin jackeen when I called my brother’s new girlfriend a dublin jackass….haunts me to this day
I am going to ucd and as a lad who lived out in the countryside all my life,it was a big change
Indoor toilets took a while to get used to?
Since when is Russian “obscure and ultimately useless”!?
Since the 80s
Russian: Spoken and used by over 200 million people as a first language
Irish: As a first language : less than 100, 000
I know it isn’t true but when I was younger we used to joke that if you weren’t in an NUI you graduated with a hard-hat, a box of crayons and the keys to a hiace!!! Friendly banter is brilliant!
Eh…Griffith. Worth a mention? Thanks a bunch :P
Griffith’s Private, the others on the list aren’t.
Pretty sure Griffith sums up Rich and Thick a lot better than Trinity.
DBS is private.
It was a good while ago when I did the leaving, but that year was the first year DBS were included in the CAO system. Griffith to my knowledge is not. So if that’s still the case, it’s at least part-public, so to speak.
They’re all included on the CAO these says, however no matter what you get you can still but yourself in regardless of points anyways.
No grá for St Pats? It’s a small college but jaysus Coppers would go out of business if it weren’t for it!
I srarted in trinity last week as a mature student and I was completely overwhelmed by the place
The towel flickers! South side homos just don’t get it
The article was both terrible and offensive in equal measure. Consolidates my view never to read these sponsored stories…curiosity got the better of me this time.
dire article cut and paste gone down the jacks
Get a job! Load of bums won’t be ready to start working until they’re 35 years old.
Go IAU – best college in Dublin :)
ITB – Forever dodging the clampers!
St Patrick’s College Carlow all the way lads. Not much to do in the town though.
That’s predominantly a priest’s college … Carlow has a pretty big IT, where you won’t find Dub 4 knob-ends guffawing about the “Lass” they ‘snogged’ in Coppers, like .. ya … Also there’s tonnes to do in Carlow town. Did you ever leave the college grounds??
This song probably sums up the NCAD stereotype:
https://soundcloud.com/bennysmiles/ncad-girl-day-draft-benny
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