Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to ramp up talks with Independents

Senior Fine Gael members are courting the possibility of a grand coalition with Fianna Fáil as talks to form a government intensify. The two parties are to ramp up their negotiations with Independents and smaller parties this week in a bid to form a minority government.

Fianna Fáil has assembled a four-strong negotiation team which will begin by speaking to the Social Democrats and a number of Independents tomorrow, while Fine Gael members are also organising meetings this week.

However, Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe and MEP Brian Hayes yesterday left the door open to the possibility of doing business with Fianna Fáil.

However, the notion of a grand coalition was shut down by one of Fianna Fáil’s four key negotiators Barry Cowen who said the party would “not be rowing back” on its promises.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner he said the party is now committed to putting an alternative government in place and the party will be meeting with Independents and other smaller parties this week.

“Whether it takes an hour or a month we want to put in place a new government led by Micheál Martin,” he said.

“If people want to restore faith in politics, we can’t break the one promise we made and that was not to go into government directly with Fine Gael but to offer an alternative.

“We are ruling that out now. The negotiations we are entering into this week are with a view to try and maximise that mandate,” Mr Cowen yesterday told RTÉ’s Week in Politics.

This was echoed by another of the party’s appointed negotiators Jim O’Callaghan who said there is “no appetite” among Fianna Fáil TDs to enter a coalition with Fine Gael.

However, Mr Hayes who acted as Fine Gael’s director of elections said “hard positions taken up now aren’t going to help anyone” and strong statements may be regretted by politicians in the coming months.

“It would be very foolish of any politician now to have their tapes played back in about two or three months’ time where they take up these hard and fast positions,” he said.

“Politicians should not box themselves in at the moment. I think the preference for Fine Gael is to lead a minority government with the support of a number of smaller parties or Independents. But if that does not succeed, clearly we will have to look at the possibility of Fianna Fáil,” he said.

He said “we are not there yet” when it comes to the idea of a grand coalition but said it could not be ruled out because the “only other alternative to this stalemate is sleepwalking our way into another election that no one wants”.

Mr Donohoe said that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had worked well together on the issue of road safety and there is no reason why this couldn’t be broadened out.

“It did not mean that deputy Timmy Dooley, who was the Fianna Fáil transport spokesman, agreed with everything I was doing, it did not mean that he voted with every piece of road traffic legislation, but what it did mean was there was a shared attitude to try and find ways of improving legislation.

“That does offer a model that we can look at in the future,” he told RTÉ.