A mechanism is provided for issuing instructions. An instruction dispatch unit receives an instruction for dispatch to one of a plurality of execution units. The instruction dispatch unit analyzes a tag register to determine whether a previous tag associated with a previous instruction has been stored in the tag register. Responsive to the previous tag associated with the previous instruction failing to be stored in the tag register, the instruction dispatch unit storing a tag corresponding to the instruction in the tag register. The instruction dispatch unit dispatches the instruction to an issue queue for issue to the one of the plurality of execution units.