Sargent dismisses possibility of coalition with FF

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent is dismissing comments made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern about a possible future coalition between Fianna Fáil and the Greens.

In an interview in today's Irish Examiner, Minister Ahern said the prospect of an alliance with the Greens "is not that off the wall".

However, he claimed such a coalition would require a radical compromise in what he described as the Greens "wobbly and scary" economic policies.

Green leader Sargent said this morning that Fianna Fáil clearly does not know much about economic policies outside Ireland:

“What I find incredible is that the minister is, on the one hand saying he’s interested, and on the other hand he’s claiming our economic policies are not suitable, which is bizarre given that they are modelled on very successful countries like Finland and Sweden.

“So these are policies that might be new to Ireland but they’re not new to some very successful countries,” he said.

Mr Sargent highlighted problems with Fianna Fáil's economic polices in relation to climate change, waste management and traffic congestion and said: “We would need to see major changes before we could do business with Fianna Fáil.”