Squatter Enda Kenny still playing coy on coalition deal with Fianna Fáil

Patience with the slow-moving political talks is wearing thin, writes Political Editor Daniel McConnell

Fine Gael leader and acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been so long at this talking lark with Independent TDs, he is about to become eligible for squatters’ rights in Government Buildings.

Now that the Easter celebrations are completed, there is no major impediment to these talks, but we remain as far away from a Government as we were a month ago, when the electorate rejected Kenny’s bid for re-election.

The glacial pace of the talks between Fine Gael on one side and 15 independents and the two Green Party TDs on the other means agreement may be reached in time for the next centenary of the 1916 Rising in 2116.

Of course something will happen sooner than that but by God, is it getting tiresome.

It is clear from the arithmetic that only a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael arrangement can deliver the necessary majority.

There has been precious little recognition of that simple fact in the charade process involving Fine Gael and the Independents so far.

Even Leo Varadkar concluded as much yesterday.

Varadkar said it will be difficult to form a stable government without “some sort of arrangement” between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

He said the talks between Fine Gael, the Green Party and a number of independents were going “reasonably well”.

Asked by reporters if he felt it was inevitable that Fine Gael would have to contact Fianna Fáil, Varadkar said: “I don’t think it’s inevitable, but I do think it will be difficult to form a stable government without some sort of arrangement between the two large parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael”.

Even some on the independent side also realise the cruel reality of the Dail numbers.

Speaking on his way into the talks, Independent TD Micheal Healy Rae said it was disgraceful the two main parties had not spoken yet. He said there was a fear Independent deputies were being used by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. “We do not like being used as leverage in that way.”

One note of interest yesterday was the near silence from the Independents in comparison to last week, where they seemed more than happy to brief the media as to progress.

Apart from the odd exception, a remarkable bout of omerta descended on the participants.

It could be taken as a sign of very little happening, or a sign of actual progress being achieved.

For his part, Kenny said he will not contact Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin until he concludes talks with Independent TDs.

Mr Kenny opened the round table talks with 15 Independents and the Green Party at Government Buildings by telling the meeting he wants to agree a minority coalition deal before contacting the Fianna Fáil leader.

Fine Gael feels this would allow him to negotiate with Martin from an “agreed position” with Independents and the Greens.

Simon Harris said it was a matter for the Taoiseach when contact would be made with the Fianna Fáil leader.

“The Taoiseach has made it clear that at some point it will be necessary for whoever proposes to form a Government to talk to the people on the opposition. It obviously makes sense that you would talk to the people who want to be in that Government with you.”

With increasing doubt as to whether April 6 will see a vote for Taoiseach in the Dáil, given the impasse, people are genuinely beginning to ask when will this process actually conclude.

One month of this is a novelty but beyond that it becomes a serious matter of a vacuum being created.

The outgoing Government have no mandate to continue, and if Kenny wants to remain as Taoiseach, then he needs a majority to do so.

The public’s patience for the kind of game-playing is beginning to wear thin as to the failure of Kenny to reach out to Martin, who has been missing in action for over 10 days.

Only then will we see real progress in terms of a new Government or a second election, which remains a distinct possibility.

Given the resistance within Fianna Fáil to doing a deal with Fine Gael, Martin knows only too well the risks he would take in terms of his own position were he consider the idea of a grand coalition.

He would have to put such a proposal to a special Árd Fheis and there is no guarantee he would succeed, given the views of the Fianna Fáil grassroots have hardened against the idea of a coalition since the election.

Were he to lose such a vote having recommended it, Martin’s position would be untenable.

But we are still a long way from such eventualities and for now we will continue in the charade of the talks with the independents.

But, as important as some people will make them out to be, they are and will remain merely a sideshow.