Verona Murphy has taken a decisive stand that has sent shockwaves through the Government.
The Regional Group is a key component of the Coalition and an essential cog in its ambition to deliver five budgets.
That is why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael opted to beef up their Dáil majority so substantially when the support of just one independent TD would technically have seen them over the line.
They wanted a bulwark that was able to withstand the inevitable political storms that gust during the lifetime of all governments.
To achieve this, five TDs were given ministerial roles and four more would support the Government in the Dáil.
But the move by Michael Lowry to form a Dáil group that sported the colours of the opposition unleashed a political hurricane, which seemed to catch the Government off guard.
It has now been spectacularly thwarted by the very Ceann Comhairle the poll-topping Tipperary TD helped elect to the top job in the Dáil.
That speaking time which Mr Lowry felt he was entitled to as someone who was elected as a non-party and non-government representative is now off the table.
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It will anger the Regional TDs enormously but is it enough to make them question their allegiance to the Government?
That is unlikely, but their next move is certain to be dramatic and laden with angst.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael too are in a tricky spot having expended so much political capital trying to find a way to get Dáil speaking time for the Regional TDs.
In the end, the TDs' own words were used to unpick their claims that they were operating at a remove from the Government.
Ms Murphy said she had to make a judgement on what being an opposition TD was based on, the ordinary and plain meaning of that word.
So, when Mr Lowry said on 15 January, following the successful conclusion of the Programme for Government negotiations, that "we had to be working within Government, not from the outside," the meaning was clear to Ms Murphy.
Ditto Danny Healy-Rae's words when he said on 16 January that "there’s so much that we can do from being inside the Government."
And the Programme for Government itself stated that "all parties and groupings party to the Government understand the need to ensure a stable Government during the full term of this Dáil."
Ms Murphy has received emails from Deputies Michael Lowry, Gillian Toole, Barry Heneghan and Danny Healy-Rae asserting that they would be retaining their independence and voting on a case-by-case basis.
But she concludes that these "carry lesser weight than their previous public statements and actions."
The judgement is clear then, but the political fallout is not.
