Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael shore up support as inevitable talks loom
As TDs prepare for a fresh vote for Taoiseach tomorrow, both the big parties are trying to nail down support for a moral victory of sorts.
Ongoing negotiations with Independent TDs though are expected to come to a head today, before tomorrow’s vote, and more importantly, before real talks get underway between party leaders Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin.
Senior Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil figures agree that these fresh talks, will set the real agenda and that all that has gone before with the hours and hours of negotiations with Independents and non-aligned rural TDs will become secondary.
One action though that ignited ill-feelings and tensions around Leinster House yesterday was a curious tweet from acting health minister Leo Varadkar.
The candid politician uploaded a picture of his stacked election posters and quite cheekily declared:
“My posters cleaned, counted, stored and ready to be deployed.”
My posters cleaned, counted, stored and ready to be deployed pic.twitter.com/TPiAU1ZMcM
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) April 3, 2016
Clearly using playful language, Mr Varadkar was said to be putting a fire under the Independents, after he had a reported fall out with at least one TD in talks last week.
Another minister though followed Mr Varadkar’s lead when quizzed about whether Fine Gael are ready for any snap election. Acting transport minister Paschal Donohoe told reporters in Dublin yesterday: “My posters are safe, clean and well stored.”
The comments were added to by Simon Harris, the acting junior finance minister, who also suggested the government formation impasse could not go on and on.
“Serious issues piling up. Hope it focuses all,” he tweeted.
The comments angered TDs entering Government Buildings for the latest talks. Tipperary’s Mattie McGrath, working with the Independent Alliance, took great umbrage to the suggestion that senior Fine Gael figures were ready for an election, rather than focused on negotiations.
“There is more than an element of childish play-acting about this tweet which goes contrary to the seriousness of the approach that many of us have adopted.”
Mr McGrath suggested the health minister had acted on the back of weekend polls, which suggest that support for Enda Kenny as a leader is at an all-time low. The TD added: “It certainly gives the impression that Minister Varadkar, clearly buoyed up by the latest polling data with respect to the Fine Gael leadership, is now trying to use that momentum to destabilise the process for his own political gain.”
Independent Alliance putative leader Shane Ross said the remarks were a “threat” and meant to intimidate alliance members in their negotiations on a minority government.
Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue, involved in talks for his own party, also said that Fine Gael were trying to apply pressure on TDs and say it was “their way or the high way”.
Elsewhere, Irish Water and the explosive issue of charges has now come back into the frame in the current impasse on forming a government.
It emerged last night that Fianna Fáil are drafting a Bill for the new Dáil to scrap Irish Water and suspend charges. While Mr Martin’s party’s stance on this is already known, the fact that Fianna Fáil are taking this line just days before sitting down with political opponents Fine Gael adds to the tension in the talks.
Moreover, senior Fine Gael figures also made it known last night that the retention of water charges is now a “red line” issue. If this is the case, the position for both may become an impassable stumbling block.
Clearly, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are muscling up before Mr Kenny and Mr Martin meet face-to-face. Every advantage, argument and angle is being scrutinised. Fianna Fáil sources have also confirmed that Fine Gael’s stance “on everything” during the election, including what was in their manifesto, is being trawled through.
Realistically though, the tweets, stances on sensitive political matters and verbal threats — while fueling reaction inside Leinster House — are just ways of chief negotiators and party figures in both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil laying the groundwork before Mr Kenny and Mr Martin finally sit down in a room together.
It is widely accepted in both parties, that these negotiations will be the defining ones as opposed to the plethora of hours spent with Independent TDs.
Talks will enter a new phase. They will take time, given the traditional enmity between both factions.
But the Kenny-Martin talks will decide any chance of a minority government. If not, another election is on the cards.
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