Boyle: FG will win election

GREEN senator Dan Boyle has effectively admitted he believes Fine Gael will win the next general election.

Mr Boyle told a Fine Gael senator yesterday that he would learn about the nature of coalition government “soon enough”.

Mr Boyle was discussing EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn’s pension with Paschal Donohoe on social networking site Twitter.

When Mr Donohoe suggested the Government should be able to address such issues, Mr Boyle responded with a message that betrayed his feelings on the Fianna Fáil-Green coalition’s prospects of being returned to power.

“Indeed it is Paschal. And coalition government is about competing dynamics. You’ll learn about that soon enough,” Mr Boyle wrote.

But Mr Donohoe indicated he was taken nothing for granted in his response. “I hope we get there.”

Speaking to the Irish Examiner last night, Mr Boyle insisted that, whatever about the coalition’s prospects, he was not writing off his own party.

“We’ll be contesting the election as an independent party,” he said.

“Any combination of parties could form a government.”

He also insisted people were “reading too much” into his remark.

“Soon can mean anytime in the next decade,” said the Cork senator.