Kenny and Co still have senior hurling games to play

It is never easy, is it? writes Daniel McConnell

If Enda Kenny thought that doing the deal with Fianna Fáil was the hard part, and squaring off the Independents was a breeze, then yesterday gave him cause to think again.

With Labour, Fianna Fáil, the Social Democrats, the Greens, Sinn Féin, the Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit group, and some Independents all not willing to touch him with a barge poll, Kenny’s options for government partners are limited.

Yes, he has Independents Michael Lowry and Katherine Zappone in the bag but, so far, he has nobody else.

Zappone looks set to become a Cabinet minister, given her decision to break ranks and support Kenny’s bid to be re-elected.

Three weeks ago, the Independents pulled back from talks to allow Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil hash out a deal.

It took them forever to do it, but a deal we have.

The question is now whether the demands of the Independents can be squared with what has been agreed.

There was some annoyance among Shane Ross and Co at Kenny’s description on Thursday of Fine Gael “consulting” with the alliance.

They do not see it as a rubberstamping exercise but rather a full-blown negotiation for government.

Into that breach stepped Waterford TD John Halligan, who said that if he does not get the concessions he needs about cardiac care at Waterford Hospital, then he is out.

So far, the alliance has said it will move as a group or not at all, but Halligan said he would not stand in the way if the other five sought to do a deal.

He may perhaps understand that Fine Gael will not agree to anything that runs contrary to medical advice, as articulated by several ministers to me yesterday.

Halligan aside, Roscommon TD Michael ‘don’t bullshit me’ Fitzmaurice, sounded a downbeat tone.

He said Simon Coveney’s timeline of a deal by Thursday was “overly ambitious” because “there is still an awful lot of work to do”.

Also speaking to me, another ministerial contender Finian McGrath of Dublin Bay North, said a deal is possible if the will is there from Fine Gael.

Fine Gael are confident they can see the thing through and achieve what they wanted to do when they deferred holding the election last November — get Kenny re-elected Taoiseach.

One note of interest yesterday, was Coveney’s reaching out again to the Greens and the Social Democrats.

Both parties have already shot Coveney and Fine Gael down on that front, but Simon is an optimist, and is hoping they have a change of heart.

Meetings will kick off at 10am today, and if Finian gets his way, they will be locked in a room without access to food or water until a deal is done. “None of this one hour here, two hours there, it’s serious talking,” he told me yesterday.

Senior hurling, lads and ladies.