Martin hints at extending FG deal

Micheál Martin has hinted at extending the confidence and supply agreement to support Fine Gael in Government for longer than the three-budget deal.

While the Fianna Fáil leader said his party is now growing “impatient” with the lack of progress on housing and health, he remains committed to supporting the current minority Government through the confidence and supply arrangement for the full term until 2019.

However, he went further in suggesting that this agreement could be stretched out and reviewed — potentially allowing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to remain in power for a full five-year term.

“There is provision in the agreement for a review towards the end of 2018,” Mr Martin said.

“It’s our commitment to fulfill the confidence and supply,” he said.

It comes as the latest poll indicates that Fianna Fáil have closed the gap between themselves and Fine Gael by half in the last month.

A Sunday Times/Behaviour & Attitudes poll saw Fine Gael enjoy an eight-point lead over Mr Martin in September. However, that lead has now decreased to four points.

The poll shows Fine Gael has dropped two points to 31% while Fianna Fáil increased by two points to 27%. Sinn Féin remain unchanged on 19%, while Independents increased by two points to 12%.

Fianna Fáil members met in Dublin’s RDS over the weekend for their Ard Fheis where pension inequalities for women, tracker mortgages, and the housing crisis were among the motions debated and voted upon.

Anomalies around contributory pensions mean that women impacted by the marriage bar or who took time out of work to rear children or care for elderly relatives are now being penalised by as much as €35 a week.

The issue, which was debated at the Ard Fheis, will also be raised by Fianna Fáil in the Dáil this week.

Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Willie O’Dea, who will bring the Dáil motion forward, said: “Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe described the anomaly as ‘bonkers’ and I agree with him.”

Party members also voted in favour of a retention of the Eighth Amendment while they voted to put forward a candidate in the presidential election next year.

Speaking after the Ard Fheis, Mr Martin said housing and health are key to maintaining the confidence and supply agreement but slammed Government for lacking a sense of urgency on both issues.

“Yes, we are becoming impatient about lack of delivery on housing, we lost a year due to the internal angst in Fine Gael around who was to become the leader, and in terms of all of the various initiatives they have taken around housing they have failed by their own admission.

“We have had four major strategies, four ministers, 40 major announcements and the problem keeps getting worse.

“We are saying certainly in the next 12 months there has to be delivery in relation to housing and in relation to health,” he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics show.

In perhaps what was a Freudian slip where he referred to his party being in Government, Mr Martin said some room does need to be given to address the housing shortage but said time is now running out.

“We are only a year and a half in Government,” he said before correcting himself.

“Sorry in terms of this arrangement, in terms of confidence and supply we have only had year and a half in this Dáil so therefore we do need to give some room and space for delivery, but time is running out and excuses are running out, not for us but for the people who can’t rent a house who are fighting to stay in a house.”

But one Fine Gael minister yesterday said Mr Martin is more interested in “wagging the finger” than in offering his party’s vision or solutions for the country.

Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture, Andrew Doyle said Mr Martin is full of “bluster” and has yet to outline what exactly Fianna Fáil stand for following their Ard Fheis in Dublin over the weekend.

“Micheal Martin had 30 minutes of prime time TV on Saturday night to talk to the nation about solutions and ideas. Instead he just wagged the finger.

“Deputy Martin keeps promising that these big policy ideas are just around the corner and are coming soon, well where are they?

“All we have seen over the weekend at their Ard Fheis is an attack on Government and Fine Gael.

“Perhaps next time if afforded the same platform, he’ll be more original and positive and give us some vision and concrete proposals,” Mr Doyle said.