The country needs certainty in a time ofcrisis- aDáildeal can wait no longer

ALMOST three months since the country went to the polls it looks as though the log jam that has paralysed Leinster Houses may finally be cleared and a solution can’t come soon enough. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have essentially agreed a deal – one which would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago – but without a stable majority their efforts to form a government would soon come apart at the seams.

Enter the Greens.

After weeks on the sidelines, like Labour, leaving government talks to the old enemies in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, Eamon Ryan and his party have finally stepped up to the plate.

Understandably wary given what happened the Green Party when it last sat around a cabinet table with Fianna Fáil, Mr Ryan and his team have issued a fascinating list of demands that Leo Varadkar and Michael Martin will have to meet if they are to secure the Green’s support.

The ‘ red line’ demand on the Green shopping list is an absolute commitment for concrete steps to reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions by seven per cent a year.

Other demands include a commitment to set aside a fifth of all transport spending for cycling and walking; a two to one ratio of spending on public transport over roads; the end of the direct provision system; a proper examination about setting a ‘universal basic income’ and a halt to the development of controversial fossil fuel infrastructure projects.

The demands are very ambitious but they are achievable and in making a realistic submission to his potential coalition partners Mr Ryan has shown that he and his party are serious about the negotiations.

It would have been easy to submit a list of grandiose and noble but ultimately impossible proposals and then walk away claiming the Dáil old guard were unwilling to deal. Mr Ryan and his colleagues have chosen a different course.

With senior sources in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil indicating that a deal can be done based on the Green’s demands, it looks as though we may finally have an elected government in the relatively near future.

Let’s just pray that it happens sooner rather than later because in a time of unparalleled crisis our country is in urgent need of a fully functioning government that has a proper mandate from the electorate.

Mr Varadkar and his caretaker cabinet team – Simon Harris in particular – have done an exceptional job in extremely difficult circumstances but as the crisis rumbles on with no end in sight and talk moves to the post Coronavirus recovery, a firm hand is needed at the tiller.

The caretaker government has taken the country as far as it can and now it is time for a full-time administration to take charge.

As public fatigue with the lockdown grows and fear about the future deepens, the country needs certainty.

Hopefully Messrs Varadkar, Martin and Ryan can provide it.