Fine Gael in turmoil after Kenny U-turn over coalition with Sinn Féin
Ministers and backbenchers unite in rejecting Kenny comments and
ENDA KENNY was forced into an embarrassing U-turn yesterday over his comments on a Sinn Féin coalition after a Fine Gael frontbench and backbench rebellion.
In a press briefing on Thursday, the Taoiseach appeared to have left the door open to a future coalition with Sinn Féin.
The Taoiseach’s office say he was a victim of ‘selective quoting’. But a succession of Cabinet ministers ignored his office’s pleas on Friday to blame the press.
An array of ministers and TDs came out against any coalition with Sinn Féin. And a Cabinet minister told the Irish Mail on Sunday that the FG media briefing notes issued on Friday to clarify the Taoiseach’s remarks were ‘pathetic’.
And Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin last night warned that ‘internal Fine Gael angst’ could lead to the Government’s collapse.
After almost 48 hours of controversy, the Fine Gael press office issued a statement from Mr Kenny early yesterday afternoon.
‘The Fine Gael Party position is, has been and will remain, not to enter into coalition government with Sinn Féin,’ said Mr Kenny.
‘As I have stated many times previously
‘The party briefing notes were pathetic’
I don’t believe the parties to be in any way compatible, in particular on economic issues where Sinn Féin policy would lead to massive job losses and seriously undermine business and investment.
‘My focus and that of the government I lead is to manage the nation’s affairs in the interests of its citizens. We have immediate challenges that must be dealt with, including Brexit, and we will meet those challenges head-on, as we have done successfully many times before.’
Senior sources in Fine Gael said last night that the party saw it as essential to issue Mr Kenny’s statement after two days of statements from party’s Oireachtas members contradicting the Taoiseach.
The party wanted to quash the controversy before the arrival of British Prime Minister Theresa May in Dublin tomorrow to discuss Brexit. At a briefing on Thursday, the Taoiseach was asked on three occasions to rule out coalition with Sinn Féin and failed to do so. The questions had been prompted by comments from Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald that her party could take part in the next coalition government as the junior partner, saying she wanted Sinn Féin in power. Her statement was regarded as a significant change in position by Sinn Féin, which previously said it would enter government only as the senior partner in any coalition.
On Friday and again on Saturday morning, a series of Fine Gael Cabinet ministers came out to say it was not party policy to consider coalition with Sinn Fein.
Potential leadership contenders Simon Coveney, Leo Varadkar and Frances Fitzgerald all said a partnership with Fine Gael was not a runner. A number of backbenchers joined the chorus of contradiction.
Leo Varadkar told the MoS yesterday that it was a ‘very welcome clarification from the Taoiseach’.
On RTÉ Radio’s Saturday With Claire Byrne Show yesterday after Mr Kenny’s U-turn, Arts Minister Heather Humphreys, a Kenny loyalist, followed the line of the Taoiseach’s office by suggesting the media were to blame. But she added that Sinn Féin and Fine Gael were ‘incompatible’ for coalition.
‘Sinn Féin and Fine Gael are like oil and water, they don’t mix. They are incompatible, it can’t happen.’
Asked if she thought, as some ministers had been quoted as thinking off the record, that Mr Kenny was ‘losing it’, she said: ‘I don’t agree with that.’
However, party colleagues were mystified as to why the Taoiseach let the controversy run for two days. It is a basic tenet of Fine Gael that it opposes Sinn Féin and any co-operation with it.
Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan said last night that the Taoiseach’s comments were ‘daft’. ‘He shouldn’t have said it, it wouldn’t get through the parliamentary party. It was kind of a daft thing to be drawn out on,’ said Mr Phelan. ‘I don’t see any point in joining others in condemning him for what he said. But why would you leave something like that out there? Why would you leave it hanging?’
Mr Phelan added of the Taoiseach: ‘He showed himself to be a little bit removed from the feeling of the party – I can say that even from a membership point of view.
‘And you know the Taoiseach has always been, in fairness, close enough to the vibe of the party. It’s a rare lapse. It was a surprising lapse.’
One minister said of the briefing documents issued by the Taoiseach’s office: ‘The six or seven lines that were sent around yesterday were pathetic. Nobody was going to say any of that ever. They were stuff like, “what the Taoiseach actually said….”
‘But what the Taoiseach actually said is what was recorded in the newspapers and played on the radio. So don’t pretend it wasn’t said.’
‘He shouldn’t have said it. It was a daft thing’