McGrath to give others a chance

FINIAN McGRATH will formally tell his Technical Group colleagues on Thursday that he is standing down as one of their representatives at Leaders’ Questions.

When the group was formed a year ago, it was decided to share the Dáil’s prized Leaders’ Questions slot among three deputies with Oireachtas experience – Joe Higgins, representing the ULA, and Shane Ross and McGrath, representing the Independents.

But it was also agreed to review the arrangement in a year with a view to rotating the designated speakers.

We understand that at least four of the Independents have expressed an interest in taking over from the two current incumbents: Tipperary’s Mattie McGrath, Donegal’s Thomas Pringle, Waterford’s John Halligan and Wicklow’s Stephen Donnelly.

“I think it would be a great learning experience and I’d relish the chance to get up there and question the Taoiseach,” said one of the deputies, who didn’t want to be named in advance of Thursday’s meeting to decide on their spokespeople for the coming year.

When contacted, Deputy McGrath confirmed he would not be asking his colleagues to allow him stay on. “I’m not going forward. I’ve done my 12 months and I want to give other people a chance.”

Shane Ross seemed somewhat taken aback when contacted. “If the group want me to do another year, I’ll be prepared to do it,” he told us. “But I won’t stand in the way of the other people who want to do it.”

Meanwhile, Higgins said yesterday that the question of who represents the ULA during Leaders’ Questions “is to be considered, definitely” in due course.

“Nothing has been arranged yet, but of course we’ll talk about it.” The Socialist Party leader explained that this is due to time constraints. “We are under ferocious pressure with the major campaign on the household tax.” He said that while “some people seem to think that asking Leaders’ Questions is a big deal in terms of publicity”, it didn’t yield a lot of coverage for him.

If he wasn’t tracking the Taoiseach during questions, he would find another platform to air his views, such as the finance committee.“It will have to be discussed. Whatever is agreed, I’ll agree to.” Richard Boyd-Barrett would seem the most likely successor, with Clare Daly also seen as another contender. When the Technical Group was formed, chairman McGrath said the arrangement was based on diversity and accommodating differences, and that speaking time would be shared out among the members of the group which would be “run on a co-operative basis.”

Of course, the Green Party had a similar idea in the last government, when minister John Gormley was supposed to “rotate” himself out of office and give way to Ciaran Cuffe.

Squatter’s rights prevailed, much to the other man’s disappointment.

Agreement or not, will the status quo prevail for Ross and Higgins? Or might Enda and Eamon be facing three new faces in a few weeks?