The Taoiseach set out the road to government of the Lowry TDs. He emphasised their willingness to serve, their forensic analysis of the programme for Government and then their accession to high office - all of the building blocks that define them categorically as Government TDs. The Taoiseach is quite right. After an election there is of course a necessity to assemble a Government and you did that - Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Lowry group. You get to define the Government. You do not get to select the Opposition. That is at the core of this issue.
Maybe we can be of some assistance in defining the deal done with Lowry. I can identify two parts of it. One was the office of the Ceann Comhairle, is that not right, Taoiseach? Second was speaking rights at Leaders' Questions and of course that suits you because it blunts the accountability mechanism. Leaders' Questions is the set-piece event, as we know, for the Opposition to hold the Taoiseach to account and now he wants that to be occupied by faux Opposition in the form of Lowry and his crew.
