Technical Group - Origin and Policy

Origin and Policy

Only parliamentary groups with seven members or more have full speaking rights under Dáil standing orders, meaning that smaller parties and independent politicians would be unable to speak as often as parties with enough deputies to form their own groups. Prior to 1997, a technical group automatically came into being if there were seven or more independent TDs. Since 1997, a group of TDs must agree to form a group.

Under standing orders, only one technical group may exist at any time, with at least seven members and comprising a majority of deputies who are not members of another group in Dáil Éireann.

Recent examples of technical groups include:

• 27th Dáil: a group of nine deputies formed in 1992.
• 29th Dáil: a loose federation of 22 opposition deputies.
• 30th Dáil: a technical group was not created initially after the 2007 general election, because there were only five potential members - Sinn Féin's four deputies and Tony Gregory. Most outgoing independents from the 29th Dáil lost their seats, Sinn Féin was reduced to four, the six Green Party TDs became part of the government and three out of the four remaining independents made confidence-and-supply arrangements with the government. The election of Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin in a 2010 by-election allowed the formation of a group of seven, comprising the five Sinn Féin TDs and the left-wing independents Finian McGrath and Maureen O'Sullivan.
• 31st Dail: after the 2011 general election, 16 of the 19 independent and United Left Alliance TDs agreed to form a technical group. Catherine Murphy is the group's whip, and Maureen O'Sullivan the assistant whip. Finian McGrath resigned as Chairman in October 2012 when Mick Wallace rejoined the loose alliance, against the wishes of many of its members. The independent TDs who chose not to join the technical group are: Michael Healy-Rae, Michael Lowry and Noel Grealish.