Parties already on supply deal collision course

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are already on a collision course before talks on a new confidence and supply deal begin this week.

Micheál Martin has insisted negotiations be done in two stages, with a “comprehensive” review of the current deal to be carried out before both sides move on to looking at the possibility of extending the agreement.

However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar remains adamant that talks on a renewal of confidence and supply extending right the way out to mid-2020 should get going “sooner rather than later”.

Mr Varadkar said: “Fianna Fáil are quite keen to carry out a review of what has been achieved and what hasn’t been achieved in the last couple of years. And they want to drill down into that and I have no difficulty with that.

“But I think what the country wants is to know what its government is going to be for the next couple of months and years, particularly as we go into Brexit happening for real and then having to start the negotiations on the future relationship. I think it would be in the country’s advantage to have certainty.”

Tánaiste Simon Coveney, who is part of Fine Gael’s negotiating team, has said an agreement, which would include a review and the hammering out of a new deal, could be completed within a month.

However, Fianna Fáil believe the initial review of the Government’s delivery under confidence and supply could take the teams up to Christmas.

Speaking at the Wolfe Tone commemoration in Co Kildare yesterday, Mr Martin described the Tánaiste’s suggestion that negotiations can be wrapped within a month as “ridiculous”.

“We have had this for six or seven months,” he said. “It’s ridiculous stuff really. I don’t know why he is saying a month, as far as we are concerned it has to be substantive, it has to be really focused on issues so I am not getting into timelines or preconditions.

“It’s not about carrying on as before, it’s not about sign the dotted line and continue on for two years, no one has a divine right to power. There has to be a focus on the issues and a focus on why in some areas, things have not happened.

“We are very clear it’s a review and obviously, depending on the quality of that review, the depth of that review, and the outcome of the review obviously that leads into a further phase.”

Teams from both parties are due to meet for the first time this week. Mr Coveney will chair the Fine Gael delegation and will be joined by Paschal Donohoe, Regina Doherty, and Martin Heydon.

Fianna Fáil’s review team will comprise of Dara Calleary, Michael McGrath, Lisa Chambers and Charlie McConalogue.