Opposition behaved in juvenile and despicable manner, Michael Lowry says

The Opposition have behaved in a “juvenile and despicable” manner, according to an Independent TD at the centre of a dispute on speaking rights.

Michael Lowry acted as a key negotiator for a bloc of Independent TDs that agreed to support the formation of a Government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

He also supported the successful nomination of Verona Murphy, a former colleague in the Regional Independent Group, to take up office as Ceann Comhairle.

That nomination was seen as part of the agreement between the Government parties and the independents.

However, a dispute over speaking rights proposals put forward by the Government and Ms Murphy’s involvement in implementing a vote to pass the changes has put Mr Lowry in the spotlight.

Mr Lowry, a former Fine Gael minister, was previously found by a tribunal to have behaved in a manner that was “profoundly corrupt”.

Last week, he was criticised after being filmed sticking two fingers up to a…