New peace efforts may be underway, but the war among "the Technicals" continues apace. Since the election last June the 14 non-aligned and small-party members in Leinster House remain unorganised, despite the efforts of Government chief whip, Seamus Brennan and others to institute an ordered group for the purposes of alloting committee places, speaking time, facilities and travel.
Originally there were seven Independents, four DL, two Green and one Sinn Fein. Mil- dred Fox, Jackie Healy Rae and Harry Blaney opted to back the FF/PD Government and moves have been afoot since to unite the remaining 11 into a nonpolitical, technical group. The problem all along has been DL's refusal to enter any arrangement that includes Sinn Fein's Caoimhghin O Caolain and the reluctance of several of the remaining seven Independents to exclude him. The impasse has meant the chief whip still continues to draw names from a hat to fill vacancies.
Efforts by the Green Deputy John Gormley to form a loose arrangement, with the DL on board, continue relentlessly, and he has now succeeded in getting himself admitted to whips' meetings along with DL's Pat Rabbitte. But the letter he has received from Deputy Rabbitte laying out terms for an agreement does not bode well for peace. DL proposes that they get 50 per cent of everything going, that they provide the whip, the key position in a group without a leader, and that they lead in the Dail. Deputy O Caolain is not mentioned. The Independents are less than pleased at the proposal, since they have seven members to DL's four. Yet only two Independents turned up at a meeting to discuss the proposals last month - showing what a disparate group they are - they include Michael Lowry and Joe Higgins, compared with the strictly controlled and whipped DL.
Another meeting is planned to respond to the DL letter. Meanwhile, the most experienced of the Independents, Tony Gregory, continues to hope. "It is in the interests of the small parties and Independents that a Technical group should be formed. It benefits all to be in the group on agreeable terms."