The participation of the Greens in the new Dáil Technical Group, which also includes Sinn Féin and Michael Lowry, is defended by John Gormley
Since the beginning of the new Dáil term, some Green Party members and supporters have asked why have the Greens decided to become part of the new Technical Group along with other small parties and Independents.
The explanation for the formation of the Technical Group is, well, technical. So bear with me. Let's begin with the general election itself. Many of you probably thought that all deputies elected to Dáil Éireann in May would be accorded the same rights and privileges. Not so, I'm afraid. Some TDs are more equal than others, as George Orwell might have said.
The Constitution permits the Dáil to make its own rules or standing orders, many of which are clearly unfair and discriminatory.
The most controversial of the standing orders is 114, which states that a group should consist of seven deputies elected at the last general election or "a majority of the members of the Dáil who are not members of a group as defined in paragraph 1(a) being not less than seven in number, who request formal recognition as a group in writing to the Ceann Comhairle: provided that such a request shall be signed by all such members. The Ceann Comhairle shall grant formal recognition as a group to such members as soon as possible thereafter."
You may have to read that a number of times before you grasp it. The above section SO 114 was introduced in 1997. It would have been possible at that stage to form a technical group between Democratic Left consisting of four deputies, the Greens, other small parties and Independents. However, Democratic Left, possibly in preparation for the later merger, opted instead to do a private deal with the Labour Party, which gave them access to normal Dáil speaking rights and privileges.
It should be remembered that a previous technical group existed in the 1992-1997 Dáil consisting of the Workers Party, Greens and Independents.
The exclusion of the Greens, other small parties and Independents from a technical arrangement in the 1997-2002 Dáil resulted in many of us being treated as second-rate legislators. To get speaking time we had to go cap in hand to the Fine Gael Whip's office. I always had the feeling that we were under some sort of compliment and that we should somehow be grateful for the scraps from the big boys' table.
Our Dáil participation was literally dependent on the charity extended by Fine Gael and Labour.
Following the general election in May, requests from the Greens, Sinn Féin and the Independents to change standing orders to reflect the new political landscape were flatly refused. The only alternative was to form a technical group, whose membership was open to anyone who wished to join.
This gave the new Technical Group one more member than the Labour Party and resulted in members of the group being given precedence in the House.
So miffed was the Labour Party at its descent in the Dáil pecking order that it sought to remedy this situation by making what this paper called "a shoddy deal" with Fianna Fáil and the PDs.
This recent change in standing orders now allows the Labour Party to speak before members of the Technical Group and in return the Taoiseach does not have to answer questions on a Thursday.
Many people will find it astonishing that at a time when the Dáil is in dire need of radical reform, the only thing that Fianna Fáil, the PDs and Labour can come up with is to give Bertie more free time on a Thursday to open pubs, attend football matches or other such pressing matters of State.
Real Dáil reform would have resulted in making our under-active Dáil - currently the least productive in the EU - more accountable. The litany of tribunals attests to the lack of accountability in our national parliament.
It should be recorded that Labour did not approach the Greens to discuss its problems with the Technical Group. If it had, it would have received a very positive and constructive response.
In the aftermath of its embarrassing sell-out to Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party spun the line that the Technical Group was an alliance or coalition of sorts (I've even seen this repeated by some sections of the media). It is nothing of the sort. It has no political or ideological significance. It was born out of political necessity in an attempt to secure normal parliamentary rights.
The fact that the Technical Group contains such diverse elements surely indicates that it is not a political platform. Last week, for example, Trevor Sargent called for the disbandment of the IRA, a remark that did not best please Sinn Féin. Joe Higgins disagrees profoundly with the Greens on waste charges and many members of the Technical Group have condemned unequivocally the actions of Michael Lowry who is also in the group.
It is an indictment of our arcane standing orders that these parties and Independents are forced into one group. In the current Dáil configuration where there are six Green TDs, five Sinn Féin and 14 Independents, standing order 114, which I quoted above, means that at least 13 are required to form a group. Therefore, it is true to say that we could have chosen to exclude people from the group. But having suffered political exclusion ourselves, it was the collective view that this would be fundamentally undemocratic.
Each person elected to Dáil Eireann has a mandate from the people and it is a mandate - regardless of political persuasion - which should be respected. Why should only selected groups have access to speaking time, priority questions and private members' time while others are excluded?
This discrimination is also reflected in the unfair carve-up of other Leinster House goodies: e.g. the failure to provide adequate accommodation for the smaller parties and Independents, while Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs enjoy facilities and space for themselves and their staff; the fact that the Department of Finance pays for large numbers of staff for these parties, while the Greens, Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party and Independents get absolutely nothing; the fact that the large parties share out the chairs of the various committees while again, the Technical Group members get nothing.
All of this shows that it is not just a question of standing orders. The fact is that the Greens and other small parties and Independents are not yet part of the Leinster House club - nor do we have any great desire to be. We simply demand fairness. It's time to recognise that the Irish political landscape has changed irrevocably. A proliferation of smaller parties is good for democracy and is part of a European trend.
It's time that Dáil procedures accommodate these changes. The Greens are not looking for extra privileges. We would simply like our separate mandate to be recognised and speaking time and privileges to be accorded proportionately and fairly.
• John Gormley TD is the chairman of the Green Party