In politics, a technical group or mixed group is a heterogenous parliamentary group composed of elected officials from political parties of differing ideologies (or independent of any party) who are not numerous enough to form groups on their own. They are formed for technical reasons so that members enjoy rights or benefits that would remain unavailable to them outside a formally recognised parliamentary group. A technical group is distinguished from political groups by differing ideologies. Ireland In Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Irish national parliament, the Oireachtas), prior to 2016, only parliamentary groups with seven TDs or more had full speaking rights under the house's standing orders. This meant that smaller parties and independent politicians would be unable to speak as often as parties with enough deputies to form their own groups. Prior to 1997, a technical group automatically came into being if there were seven or more independent TDs. From 1997, a group of TDs must agree to form a group. Under standing orders, only one technical group could exist at any time, with at least seven members and comprising a majority of deputies who are not members of another group in Dáil Éireann. In the wake of the 2016 Irish general election, which saw a significant increase in the number of TDs elected as independents or from small parties in the 32nd Dáil, the Dáil standing orders were extensively revised to reduce the minimum number for formation of a parliamentary group from seven TDs to five, and to allow multiple technical groups to exist in parallel. Recent examples of technical groups include: 27th Dáil: a group of nine deputies formed in 1992. 29th Dáil: a loose federation of 22 opposition deputies. 30th Dáil: a technical group was not created initially after the 2007 general election, because there were only five potential members – Sinn Féin's four deputies and the left-wing independent Tony Gregory. Most outgoing independents from the 29th Dáil lost their seats, Sinn Féin was reduced to four, the six Green Party TDs became part of the government and three out of the four remaining independents made confidence-and-supply arrangements with the government. The election of Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin in a 2010 by-election allowed the formation of a group of seven, comprising the five Sinn Féin TDs and the left-wing independents Finian McGrath and Maureen O'Sullivan. 31st Dail: after the 2011 general election, 16