Fianna Fáil may be reduced to bit part in nearly every council

FIANNA Fail could be banished to a bit part role in all bar two city and county councils if the Opposition decided to turn the screw.

Substantial gains for the Labour Party and Fine Gael, coupled with clever vote management, mean the vast majority of chambers can be dominated by coalitions which exclude the senior party in Government.

Negotiations to form these alliances kicked off as soon as the weekend’s results became apparent.

But they will take more shape in the coming days ahead of the meetings to elect new mayors. These will begin later this month.

The bidding wars will rest on who gets to hold the rotating mayor’s titles, who chairs the strategic policy committees, whether there will be deeper voting pacts and whether there are key local decisions in the offing.

The Opposition’s temptation at national level may be to oust Fianna Fáil and replicate Fine Gael/Labour’s Dáil relationship.

But in many local authorities Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have traditionally worked as part of broad coalitions, with the Labour Party if necessary.

This time the scale of Fianna Fáil’s defeat was so thorough the party only stands to dominate in Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s former hunting ground, Offaly County Council.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s native Donegal is also good for the party unless Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin form an unwieldy alliance.

Fine Gael won outright majorities in places such as Cavan, Mayo and Co Limerick, but lost its dominance in Co Cork. Here it will team up with independents.

Elsewhere, Labour scored strategically important victories. The cities, where the mayoralty bestows a disproportionately high profile, is where the results will hurt Fianna Fáil most.

In Dublin, Labour scored a stunning victory, moving from 10 seats two elections ago to 19 this time around.

Defeated MEP candidate and outgoing mayor, Eibhlin Byrne (Fianna Fáil), said she believed the rise of the left-wing groups would make it difficult for the city to pass a budget next year.

But this belittled the powerful position Labour holds and the controlling stake it will bring into negotiations.

The Labour group’s leader, Kevin Humphreys, gathered his team together last night to form a negotiating delegation to pull a deal together before the council meeting of June 15.

He said there were four options available but would not expand on his preferences.

Several councilors have privately voiced support for a “left alliance”.

Coalition with a “toxic” Fianna Fáil has been all but ruled out and pressure from the Labour leadership to form a pact with Fine Gael has diminished.

It is felt unlikely that a stable coalition could emerge with the People Before Profit Alliance.

However, the more obvious choice is Sinn Féin, which was reduced from 10 to seven city council seats, and has already made informal contact with Labour.

Set against a Sinn Féin deal are some of Labour’s southside councillors. But there are a small number of independents who may push the coalition over the line.

Before last night’s meeting, party leader Eamon Gilmore said he would not dictate to councillors around the country what deals he preferred.

In Cork city, Fine Gael gained the upper hand ahead of Fianna Fáil but once again a three-legged coalition with the Labour Party is in train.

Limerick city all but kicked Fianna Fáil out, it is down to just one seat. But after an unstable decade, in which nobody could build a stable base, Fine Gael needs only one independent to control the chamber for the next five years.

There were surprising gains for the party in other urban centres. South Dublin County Council, centred around Tallaght and Clondalkin, will be controlled by Labour but it will have to form an alliance with Fine Gael or push for a slim majority with Sinn Féin and independents.

And in Fingal, on the northside, there was no seat for Sinn Féin but Labour should be able to secure the mayor’s title for three years out of the five-year term.

In the rural-based authorities of Galway county, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Tipperary North and Laois, Fine Gael finished just shy of a overall majority and can lure independents or small Labour groups to fill the void.

Others, like Clare, are more complicated.

Power-sharing deals to divvy up with mayoralty will have to be brokered.

After courting voters for the duration of the campaign, the next month will be spent in back rooms wooing other parties.