Efforts to repair Coalition rift after protest vote

EFFORTS to repair a fraught relationship between the Green Party and Fianna Fáil has begun after an embarrassing protest by the junior coalition’s two senators.

Party chairman Dan Boyle and Déirdre de Búrca surprised Taoiseach Brian Cowen by abstaining from Tuesday night’s vote on the new criminal justice bill.

Yesterday they were supported by Communication’s Minister Eamon Ryan who said the party had been aware of the senators’ grievances.

It erupted days before a special Green Party policy conference and a summer of negotiations on a new programme for government.

It also came ahead of an expletive-laced interview in today’s Hot Press magazine in which Green Party justice spokesman Ciarán Cuffe called his Fianna Fáil partners “gobshites” who he had to work with.

“I still think they’re gobshites I’m dealing with across the table. I still think they don’t understand the issues. I still think they have moved very little,” he said.

Mr Cuffe said while there had been progress in building consensus the party still had to take the blame for Fianna Fáil’s decisions.

He also said there were strong Catholic influences in the Fianna Fáil party affecting policy.

Mr Cuffe said frictions between the government partners are bourne out in “long turgid committee meetings that go on for hour after hour after hour” that are only occasionally revealed.

On issues like the anti-gang laws, he said the Greens needed to be more vocal.

This was evident on Tuesday night when senators Boyle and de Búrca abstained from the vote on the controversial anti-gang legislation because of a row with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern.

The abstention followed a bizarre breakdown in communication within the Government on Tuesday.

Mr Gormley first alerted the Taoiseach to a potential problem when he “stuck his head around the door” on his way to an early evening function.

Both Mr Cowen and Mr Gormley left each other believing the matter would be resolved.

It was later on before the two senators indicated to Mr Gormley they were still unhappy with the refusal of Mr Ahern to implement a more structured annual review of the heavy handed anti-gang measures.

The rest of the government did not learn of their decision – to first vote against an early stage of the bill and subsequently abstain from the final vote – until after 11pm.

A government spokesman said the Taoiseach was “surprised” when he learned of the pair’s actions.

It had not been discussed at any official level before yesterday evening.

A spokesman for the Green Party ministers said Mr Gormley was “disappointed” it had got so far without being resolved.

The Taoiseach has put in place a new process to ensure such breakdowns do not happen again.