the over-70s, cuts in education and the increase of the pupil-teacher ratio. Following the election of Pearse Doherty to the Dáil, McGrath joined the Technical group, which consisted of the Sinn Féin deputies and the Independent Maureen O'Sullivan. He was re-elected at the 2011 general election, where he served as chair of the Technical group. McGrath endorsed the Independent candidate Damien O'Farrell at the 2009 local elections for the Clontarf local electoral area in Dublin City Council, who was elected topping the poll. During the 2011 presidential election, McGrath initially agreed to support Senator David Norris for nomination as a candidate. On 2 August, Norris publicly announced at a press conference that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. This followed the decision of McGrath, and the TDs John Halligan and Thomas Pringle to withdraw their support following revelations that Norris had written a letter to an Israeli court asking clemency for his former partner Ezra Nawi, who was then facing criminal charges. Norris withdrew his candidacy on 2 August due to the controversy. Sinn Féin proposed Martin McGuinness for their nomination for a presidential candidate. McGrath agreed, along with four other independent TDs, to sign McGuinness's nomination paper. McGrath resigned as chair of the technical group in October 2012, after a dispute with Mick Wallace, over Wallace's participation in the loose alliance related to speaking rights in the Dáil. He joined the Independent Alliance at its inception in 2016. He contested the 2016 general election under that banner, in Dublin Bay North owing to the abolition of Dublin North-Central. He was re-elected to the Dáil and then entered talks on government formation. On 6 May 2016, he supported the nomination of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, and was appointed by the new government as Minister of State for Disability Issues. He attended cabinet meetings, without a vote, making him a "Super Junior Minister". He appointed to the same position by Leo Varadkar when he succeeded Kenny as Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach. In January 2020, in advance of the 2020 general election, McGrath announced that he would not be seeking re-election, but would return to other forms of political activism to support people with disabilities. He continued in office as junior minister until the appointment of a new government in June 2020. Political beliefs Describing himself as "someone who comes from the tradition of Tone and Connolly",