INDEPENDENT ALLIANCE AND TAOISEACH HAVE A ‘CONSTRUCTIVE’ CHAT
FINE Gael and Fianna Fáil are both attempting to woo the Independent Alliance ahead of a crunch vote on who should be the next Taoiseach next week.
The group of six Independent TDs met with Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday morning where they gave him their ten-point ‘Charter for Change’ which outlines their position on areas such as health and crime.
The Alliance – which comprises of Finian McGrath, Shane Ross, John Halligan, Michael Fitzmaurice, Seán Canney and Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran – said yesterday that it is expecting a reply from Enda Kenny early next week about its demands.
Four of the Alliance’s six TDs met with the Taoiseach at his request to discuss their charter in a meeting that lasted 90 minutes.
Waterford TD John Halligan has said the Taoiseach himself also put some offers on the table: ‘He himself has also said that he has some reforms to bring to us regarding
‘He listened to what we had to say’
reformation of the Dáil. We said we would look at that. It was a very constructive meeting in the sense that he listened to everything we had to say regarding our charter.
‘We believe that he has taken it on board, we wait to see his response next week and we look forward to meeting him again on maybe Monday or Tuesday.’
Finian McGrath said: ‘The meeting was a very positive and open meeting. We presented the charter and we said to the Taoiseach, go through it and come back to us. This was just an introductory meeting to sound out each other.’
Fine Gael won 50 seats in the General Election and has said it will have the support of Labour’s seven TDs in next Thursday’s vote on who should be taoiseach. Even if it won the back- ing of the Independent Alliance’s six TDs, the party would still only be at 63 votes – 16 votes short of a Dáil majority of 79.
Shane Ross said the Alliance had also had ‘a couple of telephone calls from Micheál Martin’, adding: ‘We haven’t spoken to him yet but I expect we will next week.’
He said he was not leaning more towards Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil adding: ‘It is a matter of who takes the charter most seriously. I personally have no preference.’
Mr Halligan added: ‘The Taoiseach told us he was speaking to all Independents, so we don’t know what other discussions have taken place but we are focusing on our talks with him and awaiting his response.’
Mr McGrath said that despite the ongoing talks, the group will stand firm on their requests stating: ‘We are not going to be pushed around by the major political parties. We have this charter, that is our bottom line. They need to react seriously to that or else the game is not on.’ Newly elected Longford-Westmeath TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran said: ‘It is great news that a move is being made. Because there is a call out there from the Irish public that something has to take place, we don’t want an unstable government.’
While Micheál Martin predicted at Fianna Fail’s parliamentary party meeting on Thursday night negotiations on forming a Government could take two months, his finance spokesman Michael McGrath yesterday took a markedly different line. He warned that the country couldn’t afford to have a caretaker government in place for an extended period of time. ‘We have to have a government in place with authority and the capacity to address the issues of concern to the Irish people,’ he said.
Asked about Leo Varadkar’s claim yesterday that Fianna Fáil was behaving as if it had a divine right to govern, Mr McGrath said such comments were unhelpful. ‘The Irish people do not want the parties throwing grenades at each other,’ he added.