Paschal Donohoe: Change ‘could create really big risk’

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the country — in seeking change — risks jeopardising the economy if it chooses Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin to govern.

He accepted there is a “very credible prospect of a change”, but warned it can only be negative without him at the helm.

Responding to a Business Post poll which had his party in third position behind Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, Mr Donohoe said: “I think this poll shows that there’s a very very credible prospect of a change happening for our country that I think could create really big risk.

“It shows there’s the real prospect of having a government that is either led by Fianna Fáil or led by Sinn Féin. We are up against it.

But my far bigger concern is what this means for our country, and what this means for the economy of our country, because neither party are offering the kind of positive change that I believe there is an appetite out there, amongst the electorate for.

He said as a last resort, his party would look at a coalition with Fianna Fáil: “The Taoiseach has already said that if we looked at every other option, which is supply and confidence, which is also trying to get a majority in the Dáil, and none of those options worked, then as a last resort that’s something that we will be willing to contemplate in the interest of providing a government to the country.”

In response, Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath said the last four years in confidence and supply was frustrating.

“And it was very difficult and it was awkward. It wasn’t an easy place to be for us as a party. But we genuinely did it for what we regarded to be in the national interest and I think there’s a recognition among many people for that,” he said.

Speaking to Gavan Reilly’s On the Record programme on Newstalk, he said: “I think people do want to change, I think they want to complete change of government and I think they don’t want Fine Gael to have an influence over government, so our preferences to build an alliance, following the election, that does not involve Fine Gael in any shape or form: that is our objective.”