Gormley confident of accord between Coalition partners

GREEN PARTY leader John Gormley is confident the Coalition partners will agree a new Programme for Government despite his party’s demands for major policy shifts.

This morning three-person negotiating teams from both Fianna Fáil and the Green Party will meet for a second day to work out a revised deal.

A broad outline of the Green Party wish-list was leaked yesterday. This included taxation measures, a request to reverse education cuts, reform of the electoral system and a new more humane animal welfare policy.

These would require a major tracking back by Fianna Fáil ministers. However, Mr Gormley said a deal would be reached.

“I believe it can happen, it will happen but you have to appreciate the negotiations themselves are taking place in private and have to remain private,” he said.

Mr Gormley was speaking moments before he launched a policy document by the Comhar think-tank.

It recommended an economic policy shift towards environmentally driven industries and a plea to reconstitute Anglo Irish Bank as a specific lender for green projects.

However, Mr Gormley said while he welcomed the suggestion to turn “greed to green” at Anglo it was too soon to include it in the discussion on the programme or the budget.

The Green negotiation team of Minister Eamon Ryan, Senator Dan Boyle and Deputy Mary White met their Fianna Fáil counterparts for six hours yesterday.

The senior Coalition partner’s team was made up of Ministers Noel Dempsey, Dermot Ahern and Mary Hanafin.

Before the summer break Mr Ahern and Mr Boyle went head to head over a refusal to accept changes to a criminal justice bill. This led to the Green Party senators abstaining from a Government vote. However, Mr Gormley said he did not believe this was an issue in the negotiations.

“Negotiations, can at times prove difficult but at the end of the day I think both parties are insistent on the need for real reform of our economy and of society,” he said.

Health minster Mary Harney has already submitted a document outlining her policy priorities. This was dominated by health issues.

The Green Party’s plan is reported to include the creation of a single tier universal health system which would appear to conflict with the private health insurance model underpinning hospital co-location and the new consultants’ contracts.

The Greens also seek the abolition of the PRSI ceiling and a third income tax tier. The income and health levies would be amalgamated into the ordinary PAYE pay, if the Green Party got its way.

It is understood the leaked document represented an earlier draft of the Green’s wish list and was not the document brought to Fianna Fáil.

The talks continue this morning and are scheduled to discuss transport policy tomorrow. Green Party transport spokesman Ciaran Cuffe will be on hand to join the discussions if necessary.