Varadkar urged to be Minister for Covid Recovery

Taoiseach prepares for switch to enhanced Enterprise role in Martin-led ‘Cabinet Of All Talents’

‘It will allow him to fill a gap on his CV’

Murphy ‘knows his goose is cooked ’

SENIOR figures in Fine Gael will tell Leo Varadkar that if he is not going to be Taoiseach, he must spurn a role in foreign affairs.

Some allies of the Taoiseach told the Irish Mail on Sunday last night that he would be keen on a business or Covid recovery role while Micheál Martin was Taoiseach. However, sources close to the Taoiseach insisted last night that the respective roles of Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin have not yet been finalised.

Mr Varadkar is understood to favour an enhanced Department of Business in what prospective Government members are already calling a Cabinet Of All The Talents.

Dismissing doom-laden predictions for the new grand coalition, figures in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party believe that a high level of talent in the new Cabinet will lead to success.

A senior Fianna Fáil figure said last night: ‘Unlike cabinets of the past there will be no sectoral, geographical or narrow political reasons for placing unqualified people in ministerial positions.’

A Fine Gael minister agreed: ‘This could be a government of all the talents, as only the best will get jobs.’

Fine Gael ministers have encouraged Leo Varadkar not to repeat the mistakes of previous party leaders in coalition who have entered the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Varadkar would be Minister for Enterprise and Tánaiste to Taoiseach Micheál Martin. The plan is for them to swap positions in two years.

Labour leaders Eamon Gilmore and Dick Spring took the prestigious Foreign Affairs position in the past but since the post naturally requires the occupant to be abroad often, they were unable to quell the machinations of both coalition and their party rivals.

‘Leo wants to take on Business with an enhanced Covid recovery aspect in it,’ said a Fine Gael minister. ‘That will achieve a few things. It will allow him to fill a gap on his CV, occupying a financial or business portfolio.’

The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is one of the most prestigious offices of the state along with Foreign Affairs and Finance.

‘It will also mean he is on the ground to keep an eye on rivals. We must not forget Leo oversaw the second-worst Fine Gael general election result of modern times,’ the minister said. ‘And it will allow him to watch Fianna Fáil.’

Sources within Fine Gael noted that the department would be ‘allocated to whichever Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil party leader does not secure the Taoiseach’s office’.

As a post, they said ‘it would supplant the role of the Tánaiste and be equally as important as the Taoiseach’s department’.

The creation of a new department was justified by one source who said: ‘Ireland has experienced its biggest ever economic and social shock. We will need some department to, with the Department of the Taoiseach, coordinate national recovery.’

‘It could be a variant of the Economic Management Council in Enda Kenny’s government; a clearing house for ideas and monitoring implementation,’ another source said.

It is believed the most likely political casualties of such a department would be Michael Ring’s Department of Community and Rural Affairs and Katherine Zappone’s Department of Children.

Concern is particularly high over the performance of Ms Zappone’s department, which is believed to have performed weakly.

One source said: ‘It has been mired in scandal on the Tusla front and performed abysmally during coronavirus. It needs to be absorbed by a bigger department.’

Alternatively, the Department of Arts and Culture, which has also struggled under Josepha Madigan, could be absorbed.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is expected to retain his job, with Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath taking over a rebooted Department of Public Expenditure.

However, with the government formation talks reaching a critical point this weekend, Fianna Fáil will insist that if the plan is for Mr Varadkar to become Taoiseach after two years, then the positions of Finance and Public Expenditure will also have to swap. In that case Mr McGrath would then take over as Finance Minister.

There is also a discussion in Fine Gael of long-suffering Health Minister Simon Harris moving, perhaps, to the Department of Justice.

Those involved in the government talks said that a row over when the emerging budget deficit would be repaid was settled on Thursday.

A negotiation source said: ‘The language over the deficit repayment was settled, so there aren’t many big ticket items to settle on now.’

However, the issue of carbon and pollution emissions remain unresolved.

Figures in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael told the MoS that they remain unhappy that the Green Party cannot bring detailed plans to the talks explaining how they plan to cut emissions.

The requirement to get a Programme for Government through votes by three party memberships means that the deal will have to be agreed by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

So before Tuesday, there must be a final agreement on positions. It is believed that the parties have roughly agreed on six Cabinet posts for Fine Gael, six for Fianna Fáil and as much as three for the Green Party – a so-called 6-6-3 formation.

Of the six provided for Fianna Fáil, Mr Martin is expected to become Taoiseach first in a rotating agreement. That will leave five posts for Fianna Fáil.

Dara Calleary, as deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, is expected to take one position, perhaps Agriculture. Mr McGrath, as the man who has spent almost 10 years as the party’s Finance spokesman, will also be in Cabinet, almost certainly as the Minister for Public Expenditure, perhaps moving to Finance after two years.

There will then be at least one Dublin Minister – Jim O’Callaghan, Jack Chambers and Darragh O’Brien will compete for that, with Mr O’Callaghan the overwhelming favourite. He is expected to assume the Department of Justice brief.

There will be a woman member of Cabinet and that is between Niamh Smyth, Anne Rabbitte and Mary Butler. Ms Rabbitte is favourite.

Thomas Byrne is favourite to take the last Cabinet post and his strong performance as Education spokesman could see the party take that portfolio.

Niall Collins, who is one of the few young, progressive TDs to have had an unbroken tenure in a seat since 2007 is also a strong contender for Cabinet along with Barry Cowen. However, there are the powerful positions of Chief Whip and ‘super junior’ ministers that would appease disappointed big beasts.

There is increasing speculation in Fianna Fáil that Kildare South Independent TD Cathal Berry will be given the Junior Defence

Minister role, ostensibly to extend favour to those Independents who are expected to support the Government from without.

However, there is what one senior Fianna Fáil figure described as a ‘twin-track’ method with Mr Berry. ‘There are strong hopes in Fianna Fáil that Cathal will join us,’ said one TD. ‘And this is the carrot.’

For his part, Mr Varadkar will have to axe several key supporters from the cabinet. There are currently three vacancies courtesy of the electoral fates of Shane Ross, Regina Doherty and Ms Zappone

The only certainties for Fine Gael are Mr Varadkar, Simon Coveney, the politically indestructible Mr Harris and Mr Donohoe.

Even the Taoiseach’s inner circle will face the political axe with one senior Varadkar ally saying: ‘Eoghan [Murphy], the architect of Leo’s triumph knows his goose is cooked. Josepha’s [Madigan] goose is cooked too. She does not know it, but everyone else does.’

The source added: ‘Those who are certain to go are the grumpy old men such as [Michael] Ring and [Michael] Creed.

‘Theoretically Richard Bruton should be on that list, but Leo may not wish to lose his experience. It could be between Richard and Charlie [Flanagan] for the status of cabinet political pensioner.

‘Leo may want to promote Helen McEntee, but geography and the ‘Me-too’ brigade will save Heather [Humphreys] and he may not have the space.’

A senior figure warned: ‘Everyone is on the edge. There are scant vacancies for new talent and there’s not much for old talent too.’

Intriguingly, within the Green Party the most uncertain issue may be the cabinet future of the current leader Eamon Ryan. The situation was summarised by a senior party figure who sympathetically said: ‘It’s the nightmare of history. He could be the second Trevor Sargent... leading his party into government and himself out of cabinet.’

They said: ‘Unfortunately it is an issue of numbers and, in that regard, Neasa Hourigan is the key powerbroker within the Greens. If we are to go into coalition her support is necessary.’

This means, the senior figure warned, that: ‘If we are to keep Eamon on board, three cabinet seats are a necessity. The other problem is, you see, the position of Catherine [Martin]. At the centre of the Greens, she cannot be dropped.’

And, even if the Green Party do get three, can they have all ministers coming from Dublin, given the fears of rural Ireland?

Sources in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil said that the process of getting their membership to ratify the proposed Programme for Government will take between 10 and 14 days.

Senior figures in both parties see next Wednesday as the deadline for having a draft programme agreed.