Red-letter day of hi-jinks from Varadkar and Martin

Go away and cop yourself on.

That is the non-diplomatic version of what Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, writes Political Editor, Daniel McConnell

The party leaders met in July to discuss the progress of the confidence and supply agreement, amid annoyance from Fianna Fáil members.

Their gripe was with attempts by Mr Varadkar and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to force Mr Martin into a new deal over the airwaves.

Mr Martin made it clear he would only consider talks on a new deal once Budget 2019 was concluded. Officials such as his deputy leader, Dara Calleary, hinted there was some willingness to consider extending the deal.

For whatever reason, Mr Varadkar and Fine Gael weren’t listening to Mr Martin — the Taoiseach wrote to him on August 31 seeking talks ahead of the budget.

In his letter, Mr Varadkar said the budget was less than six weeks away and that the Government cannot work in the interests of the people if it is living on borrowed time.

A government can not function if it does not know if it will last from week-to-week or month-to-month,” he wrote. “Such uncertainty weakens our hand in Brexit talks, domestic negotiations, and of course those opposed to reform are simply more likely to wait us out. Such a scenario would not be in the interests of citizens, taxpayers, or users of our public services.

Mr Martin, a stickler for process, insisted the deal was for three budgets and he will stick to this, despite taking flack from his own party.

He said you can’t agree a new deal when one third of the deal is yet to be agreed.

Mr Martin said he does not “see a reasonable basis for the statement in your letter that ‘government cannot function if it does not know if it will last from week-to-week or month-to-month’.

“This has no grounding in our constitutional system and was not raised as an issue when the arrangement was negotiated. Indeed, it would be extraordinary if we were to agree that Ministers could not be expected to do their jobs without advance assurance of a compliant Dáil,” wrote Martin.

His justice spokesman, Jim O’Callaghan, went further, accusing the Taoiseach of seeking to cause instability to force an general election before Christmas.

Such hi-jinks drew short shrift from backbenchers in both parties. Fine Gael TD John Deasy told the Irish Examiner: “Everyone is talking about the same thing. It is time to cut a deal and move on.”

A day of high drama and we are still two weeks from the start of the Dáil term.