Verona Murphy becomes first female speaker of the Irish parliament
Her election is the first action taken by the new Dail which met for the first time on Wednesday morning.
Verona Murphy has become the first female speaker of the Irish parliament as part of attempts to form a coalition government.
Ms Murphy, an independent TD for Wexford, defeated two Fianna Fail candidates and one from Sinn Fein to win the 255,000-euro-a-year position of Ceann Comhairle.
Her election is the first action taken by the new Dail which met for the first time on Wednesday morning.
Irish premier Simon Harris formally tendered his resignation to President Michael D Higgins earlier, as part of the formalities of a new Dail convening.
Mr Harris and the outgoing cabinet will remain in their roles as no party holds a majority and talks to form a government are ongoing.
Although Sinn Fein nominated its leader Mary Lou McDonald as taoiseach on Wednesday, she won just 44 votes in a Dail with a majority of 88.
Before the Dail resumed, new TDs gathered with their families on the steps of Leinster House and posed for photos.
They named the housing crisis, a need for better public services and the high number of deaths and injuries in Gaza as the issues they believed would dominate the next term.
As the 34th Dail met for the first time, a protest was held at the gates of Leinster House calling on TDs to urgently pass a bill that would ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
Meanwhile, the names of its 174 TDs were read into the Dail record before a vote was held on electing the Ceann Comhairle.
Independent TD for Wexford Ms Murphy emerged as the winner after the Fine Gael and Fianna Fail leaders recommended to their parties to vote for her as part of government formation talks.
The other three candidates for the role raised concerns about this strategy to elect a speaker, arguing it infringed on the primacy of the Dail.
After Ms Murphy was confirmed, she was applauded as she crossed the chamber floor, with Mr Harris and Tanaiste Micheal Martin reaching out to shake her hand.
Ms Murphy then walked across to shake hands with Ms McDonald and Labour leader Ivana Bacik, as well as other TDs before thanking her supporters and the regional group of independents.
Seated in the Ceann Comhairle’s chair, Ms Murphy said she was “humbled, honoured and privileged” to serve in the role and committed to be impartial, “even-handed and even-tempered”.
She said she would improve her Irish “to a level that is commensurate with the office I now hold” after the issue of Irish proficiency was raised by the Sinn Fein candidate Aengus O Snodaigh.
“To the people of Wexford, I want to say my office is open and normal service resumes after the Christmas holidays, and will be maintained and improved,” she said.
Mr Harris and Mr Martin congratulated her on her appointment, with Mr Martin calling it a historic day.
Incumbent candidate and Fianna Fail TD Sean O’Fearghail, who had criticised making the Ceann Comhairle role part of government formation “bartering”, was also praised by Mr Martin for his work in the role.
Calling him a “most distinguished” parliamentary speaker, he said he had “added great dignity to the office of Ceann Comhairle”.
“Anybody who was in Dail Eireann before 2016 and since 2016 could not but be struck by the tremendous reform that has taken place under Sean O Fearghail as Ceann Comhairle, far greater resources now available as a result of the reform package of 2016, in the aftermath of that,” he said.
Ms McDonald was also nominated as taoiseach in the Dail by her party colleagues on Wednesday.
Sinn Fein Donegal TD Pearse Doherty said that Ms McDonald was a leader “of incredible strength, resilience and perseverance”, and said there was a need “to break with the merry-go-round of a century”.
“We’ve had 100 years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail governments. It is enough,” he said.
Ms McDonald’s nomination was ultimately defeated with 44 votes in favour, 110 votes against, and 14 abstentions.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail – the two main coalition partners in the last government – bucked a global trend of electorates ousting governments and instead increased their support, leaving them just two seats short of a majority.
The parties, forged from opposing sides of Ireland’s Civil War, who entered government together for the first time in 2020, are expected to rely on independents to make up the final numbers.
Though the centre-left Social Democrats and Labour Party have yet to rule themselves out of government talks, momentum is behind the Regional Group of nine independent TDs to enter government.
Talks are expected to continue in the coming days before breaking for the Christmas period and resuming in January.
