FF: ‘No new deal until we review current one’
FIANNA Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said there will be no time limit or preconditions for the Confidence and Supply talks and that the imminent discussions must be ‘substantive’.
He was responding to comments made by Tánaiste Simon Coveney over the weekend who said that while there were no preconditions to the negotiations, it would be his preference to see the work concluded within a month.
The Fianna Fáil leader yesterday dismissed this suggested timeframe and said that, as far as his party is concerned, the talks must ‘be substantive and really focused on the issues’ and that he wasn’t ‘getting into timelines or preconditions’.
‘The Taoiseach and I agreed there would be no preconditions. The review is in the agreement and provided for to the end of 2018,’ he said.
‘That’s what’s in the agreement, that’s what will happen.
‘This is not about carrying on as before,’ he added.
‘It’s not about signing on the dotted line and allowing us continue for another two years. No-one has a definite right to power.
‘There has to be a focus on the issues and a focus on why, in some areas, things have not happened.
‘And also a focus on areas where there’s a continuing gap in the provision of services and where people’s entitlements are not being met in terms of access to special education, special healthcare facilities,’ Mr Martin said.
He was speaking in Bodenstown, Co. Kildare, at his party’s annual Wolfe Tone Commemoration.
Fianna Fáil yesterday unveiled their four-person team of negotiators who will conduct a ‘review of the agreement’.
Fine Gael used different language when unveiling its own team the day before, describing them as being those who are ‘leading the forthcoming talks on a review and renewal’.
Mr Martin said he was being very clear that the talks would initially take the shape of a review and that depending on the quality, depth and outcome of this review, it would lead to a ‘further phase’.
Fianna Fáil TD Lisa Chambers said that before they can consider ‘potentially extending the agreement’, there must be a review.
Mr Martin said: ‘We’re very clear it’s a review and obviously depending on the quality of that review, the depth of that review and the outcome of that review…
‘Obviously that leads to a further phase, but obviously, the review is to be founded on the issues.
‘It’s going to be an issues-oriented approach. Certain things have not worked, particularly in health and housing there has been a chronic absence of delivery.
‘And if you take health, for example, we were not entirely happy with the last-minute provision of information around the budgeting of health.
‘So there’s a lot of work still to be done on the health area and that means engaging with the HSE; it means engagement with the Department of Health and in terms of making sure we can be honest with the Irish people in terms of the level of services they can expect in 2019 and beyond.
‘And the degree to which Sláintecare [the ten-year plan to reform the health sector], for example, can actually be implemented.’
The discussions will begin this week and Ms Chambers, who is part of Fianna Fáil’s review team, said it would be ‘unrealistic to review the last two and a half years and to potentially renegotiate a new agreement in two weeks – I just don’t think it’s actually possible’.
Ms Chambers also said that ‘the first part’ of the process ‘will be a substantive, and serious and genuine review of the last two and half years’.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week In Politics, the Mayo TD said this was because ‘there have been serious failings… even the Taoiseach and Government accept that.
‘Before we even consider potentially extending that agreement, that review will happen first.’
During his address in Bodenstown, Mr Martin said that his party has ‘guaranteed stability in the coming months because of the critical phase of the Brexit negotiations’.
‘So unless the Taoiseach decides otherwise, there is no danger of Ireland being caught without a functioning parliament and stable government due to an election campaign and lengthy government formation period,’ Mr Martin added.
‘Our focus is on delivering stability until the risk of a no-deal Brexit or a major last-minute change is overcome.
‘We are entering the review in good faith. If the Government matches this good faith, it can be a constructive process.
‘At all times our focus will be on how best to deliver for the people,’ the Fianna Fáil leader said.
‘No time limits, no preconditions’