Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the end of January the Government gave its word on the floor of the Dáil that it would work with the Opposition to find a resolution to the impasse relating to the status of the Michael Lowry group of Independent TDs that would be acceptable to both Government and Opposition. It has gone back on its word now and has proposed to put a motion before the Dáil that puts Michael Lowry and his group in the centre of Opposition, giving them Opposition rights such as Leaders' Questions and others. It does that at a time when Taoiseach himself will reduce Taoiseach's Questions by half to only one day per week instead of two days per week. We need to find a resolution to this. Everybody knows - the dogs in the street know - that Michael Lowry is a Government TD. It is as simple as that, and they need to deal with that fact.

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