'No guarantee' programme for government will be approved by Fianna Fáil party members
There is "no guarantee" that any programme for government is approved by the membership of Fianna Fáil, it has been warned.
Sources within the party say that it is "too early to tell" if the 18,000-strong membership will approve a coalition deal with the Green Party and Fine Gael.
Under normal circumstances, the party would have been compelled to hold an Ard Fheis in order to ratify the deal, but with the ban on mass gatherings in place, it is understood that plans are in place to hold a postal vote of the party's members. Sources say that this makes taking the temperature of the grassroots more difficult.
There have been differences between the party's membership and elected representatives since February's election results, despite Fianna Fáil winning the most seats.
Those differences have continued into the parliamentary party, where some have called for a rethink of the party's decision not to speak to Sinn Féin about forming a government.
One notable critic of the coalition plan is Eamon Ó Cuív. The Galway West TD said it is hard to say what way the party's membership will vote, but notes that there is no guarantee the deal will pass: "There's a lot of people who won't want this coalition to get done. It's hard to call it one way or the other."
He added that he can not be certain if the lack of an in-person ard fheis will change how people would vote and that postal ballots are "the reality of the situation".
"It's hard to say what people will be looking for. There will be people that think that the approach of the other two parties isn't compatible with our own.
"It's about an attitude towards people — the kind that was borne out in the Taoiseach's comments on the Covid-19 payment."
Mr O'Cuív said that the party members in his constituency seem to be broadly supportive of his position, though said he has not taken a straw poll of them. He said that a number of councillors have contacted him to make their opposition to the deal known.
However, Mr O Cuív said he feels it is unlikely there will be a second general election in the short-term in the event that his party members or the members of the Green Party fail to ratify the deal.
"It is not in our (Fianna Fáil's) gift to call a second election. We can't decide that there's a second election — the only one who can do that is the Taoiseach. However, while I can't preempt what the President might do, he might not dissolve the Dáil. Nobody has ever gone back to a President after only three months."
Last month, Deputy leader Dara Calleary acknowledged that the party's membership would be dissatisfied with the decision to seek coalition with Fine Gael. In an email accompanying the two Civil War parties' framework policy document to local councillors, Mr Calleary noted that "this is a difficult decision" for some of the elected representatives.
"Our party has never shirked from the challenge of government in testing times — I believe we cannot shirk that challenge on this occasion," he wrote.
