FF & FG TO SPLIT FINANCE IN TWO
⬛ Main parties to get 12 Cabinet seats out of 15 ⬛ Three posts to be left aside to help woo Greens ⬛ Department of Covid-19 recovery likely to be set up
THOSE planning the make-up of a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil-led coalition want to split the Department of Finance in two and set up a Department for Covid-19 recovery, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
It has also been agreed between negotiating teams that there will be six full Cabinet posts each for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Both parties have also cordoned off three full Cabinet posts for a third party. This means that TDs, particularly in Fianna Fáil, are still hopeful that the Green Party will come into a super coalition.
Those involved in government preparation – which is likely to happen regardless of who joins both parties in the coming weeks – say that the Cabinet members are virtually decided.
It has also been agreed between Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar and
Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin that the FF leader will be the first in a rotating Taoiseach arrangement.
Mr Martin will likely distribute FF’s six seats to his constituency colleague Michael McGrath (most likely as Minister for Public Expenditure); Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary and Thomas Byrne. There will also have to be a Dublin TD in Cabinet and that is likely to go to Jim O’Callaghan, who is touted, along with Mr McGrath, as a future Fianna Fáil leader.
There will also have to be a woman in Mr Martin’s Cabinet – and Cavan-Monaghan TD Niamh Smyth is tipped for that seat. She comes from one of the few constituencies to see two TDs elected.
According to colleagues, Niall Collins, who is one of the few Fianna Fáil TDs to have an unbro
‘Byrne has a wonderful ability to be calm’
ken service record in the Dáil since 2007, is also in contention for a senior position.
Mr Collins was the party’s campaign director on the marriage equality referendum and one of their most high-profile pro-choice TDs in the abortion referendum.
Mr Martin will be conscious that he needs to have young, liberalminded TDs in his Cabinet and this similarly favours Thomas Byrne.
Mr Byrne has been referred to as the ‘new Brian Lenihan’ (meaning Brian Lenihan senior) in Fianna Fáil due to the tendency for the party to use his consummate media skills in the most fraught of crises.
‘You knew we were in trouble in Charlie Haughey’s day when you saw Brian Lenihan on the telly,’ said a Fianna Fáil TD, ‘and similarly the case with Thomas Byrne. He has a wonderful ability to be calm and articulate in the most tense of political crises.
‘Brian’s catch phrase was “crisis, what crisis?” and Thomas could use that too.’
Mr Byrne was taught law by Brian Lenihan junior at college and there is some speculation that he could succeed the late minister at the politically sensitive Department of Justice.
Mr Byrne is a young TD with progressive social views and has a young family. These traits also favour Mr Collins.
The Fine Gael Cabinet make-up virtually constructs itself. It is believed that Mr Varadkar will assume a foreign affairs/Brexit role until he can re-emerge in the Department of the Taoiseach in two years’ time. Simon Harris; Simon Coveney; Heather Humphreys and Paschal Donohoe will also stay on.
It is being speculated at the highest levels of Government that the Department of Enterprise, where Ms Humphreys is currently minister, could become the Department of Covid-19 Recovery, such is the scale of the economic challenge facing the country.
Mr Donohoe would stay on at the Department of Finance with Mr McGrath taking the public expenditure role.
The one surprise addition to the Fine Gael group of Cabinet ministers would be Hildegarde Naughton from Galway West. She is a young woman but also located on the western seaboard where the party will need a Cabinet minister.
There are also as many as four ‘super junior’ seats to distribute to those who don’t make Cabinet. Those ministers all sit at the Cabinet table.
As many as three Cabinet roles could be reserved for the Green Party. There are still significant ‘back channel’ communications going on with that party and a number of influential figures in it said they could still go into Government.
‘Right now there is a middle ground that is gradually coming over to going into Government,’ said a Green Party source. ‘They are growing stronger as the Covid crisis deepens.’
However, the declaration by Leo Varadkar that a new government needs to be braced by one of the three smaller parties has destabilised the political landscape.
One senior Independent warned: ‘Independents are currently the sole group who have said they will back a government. We are standing ready willing and able, but we are more than capable of walking away if we are not seen to be good enough.’
Senior Independent figures also cautioned against further delay.
One high-profile TD warned that Fine Gael needed ‘to stop the gameplaying. There will be a deal and it will be FF FG Independents.’
‘Greens are coming round to coalition’