Sinn Féin concentrating on 'programme for government' rather than coalition

Sinn Féin appears to have given up its quest to secure the numbers to form a government coalition.

The party now say it is concentrating on "the programme for government" during government formation talks, rather than the numbers for a coalition.

Eoin Ó Broin, one of the party’’s negotiating team, says that a minority Sinn Féin-led government is possible if Ireland’’s left-leaning parties can collectively agree on a range of policies to enact in the new term.

"People get very caught up in the numbers, but if we can get a programme for government together that the progressive left parties agree on, we can put that to the Dáil floor," he said.

"The parties would be voting on the programme rather than the government formation or coalitions, which would effectively lead to a minority government, in which Mary Lou McDonald would be the Taoiseach, as we would still be the largest party in that grouping."

In order for this arrangement to be implemented through the Dáil, all left-leaning parties and independents would have to vote for it, and one of the larger parties, Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael would have to abstain.

However both parties have ruled this "reverse confidence and supply" arrangement out in the past.

Mr Ó Broin says whether either party would abstain from such a vote remains to be seen:

"What we’re going to find is that the public is going to get very fed up, we’ve already seen today in the media there is serious concerns over lack of government over issues like flooding and the coronavirus outbreak, so parties need to act quickly and effectively around the table."

Fellow negotiator, Louise O’Reilly, said that a credible programme for government is "first and foremost on our minds".

"We need a credible basis to form a government, we need to step back from the personalities and look at policies — this was policy-based election," she said.

I’m optimistic we can work out a programme for government,and that’s the stage we’re at now, what it would look like and what could be achieved.

In order to form a government, parties must command 80 seats: Sinn Féin has 37, Fine Gael has 35 and Fianna Fáil has 38.

Meanwhile, the Social Democrats have repeated their message that to form a viable government, two of the three big parties must be involved.

The message comes as Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats will meet over two days this week to discuss policy.

"These are policy discussions, getting out the manifestos and seeing where we agree, but there are some fundamental differences," a spokesperson said.

We’ve said from the outset, we’re willing to sit down for discussions but we need two out of the three big parties to form a coalition, because anything else won’t be viable.

Meeting in Leinster House on Tuesday and Thursday, the two parties have agreed to nine topics to discuss.

Tuesday’s topics will cover housing and planning, health, "objective resource allocation", which includes funding of public services and disability services. Thursday’s will cover workers and families, climate, anti-corruption, good governance, childcare and Irish unity.

The Social Democrats will meet the Green Party for similar talks on Wednesday.