Let us ALL form a government
÷Sinn Féin must be part of a national government ÷Let Leo stay on as Taoiseach for crisis ÷Keep Simon Harris on in Health
GREEN Party leader Eamon Ryan, who is key to forming the next government, says he wants Leo Varadkar to stay on as Taoiseach, Simon Harris to remain as Health Minister – and that Sinn Féin must be part of a national government.
Mr Ryan has made his demands – in an exclusive interview with today’s Irish Daily Mail – after both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have already said they don’t want to depend on an alliance of independents, and that any new coalition must have the Greens.
However, they have also said they will have no truck with Sinn Féin in government.
Mr Ryan says he wants to see a national government formed for the duration of the coronavirus crisis – which is expected to last for at least six months, but could continue until next spring – with Mr Varadkar remaining as Taoiseach.
The unprecedented cross-party coalition would keep Mr Harris in charge of Health and would include Sinn Féin members in equal numbers to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ministers in cabinet, which would also include the smaller parties.
He believes such a national government would help the country during the coronavirus crisis and, if it works, it could continue.
Mr Ryan’s comments to the Mail appear to put paid to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael hopes of his party joining them in a coalition without other parties.
He told the Mail: ‘We are going to be pushing this idea of a national government because I think it could work.’
He says it would continue ‘just for the next six months, just for the length of the crisis’. But if the new partners from all the parties take to the arrangement it could continue into the future. He says: ‘Listen, if it was working and people wanted to keep going, then why would you stop?’
Mr Ryan says there are TDs in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – two parties who have already agreed to work together – arguing for a national government of unity.
He was asked if he thought there was enthusiasm in the two Civil War parties for the proposal.
‘I don’t think enthusiasm is the right word,’ he said, ‘but I don’t get the sense that the door is shut, and my job is to try and push the door open.’
His comments will intensify efforts by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to try and find other coalition partners to support their hopes of putting a government together.
What is clear is that Mr Ryan now agrees with other members of his party that coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, without the participation of others, is not what they want.
He said that the Green Party was ‘absolutely’ unified in its support for a national government.
Mr Ryan believes that the unity of purpose shown in the Dáil in recent weeks – for instance, it passed tough coronavirus legislation without a vote in recent days – has shown the way.
‘I see it as an immediate, best way of managing the crisis. What has gone on in the last three or four weeks, like actually, we’ve worked well together in what has been a form of national government, where we’re rowing in behind our health officials.
‘We’re broadly – with some exceptions – most of the time speaking with one voice. We’re agreeing the approach and I think the Irish people are actually showing the way, they’re showing solidarity and corrective action. So just for the crisis – keep it up.’
The Green Party, unlike more established parties, is not fixated on who would take what job. But what really matters in politics is who takes the top job. In the days after the February 8 general election, it was felt that Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin was in the best position to become Taoiseach.
However, Fine Gael leader Mr Varadkar, the caretaker Taoiseach, has been judged to have led the country with distinction so far during the crisis.
‘For the political system it [national government] will be difficult to do,’ said Mr Ryan. ‘We have to elect a Taoiseach, we’d have to agree who would be Taoiseach.’
He would also see Mr Harris continuing as Health Minister as it is believed that he has performed with great skill during this emergency. Mr Ryan said: ‘You would keep the health ministry as is. Because, honestly, having had ministerial experience, it takes several months to get to grips with the department and you don’t want that happening in the midst of the crisis’.
However, as regards cabinet posts in general he added: ‘Others you could change.’
He explained: ‘The parties would have to agree, OK, who does what, that would be one of the trickiest things we’d have to get done.’
Mr Ryan was asked whether this government would mean a change of Taoiseach.
‘This is my personal view, and it is just based on an intuitive sense, what is the Irish public’s mood at the moment? I think the public feel that Leo has done well in the last couple of weeks. Is there huge grounds for that [change]? ‘I’d think probably not,’ he said. The Green Party leader believes that Mr Varadkar – particularly in the live television addresses to the Irish people he has given – has communicated with skill.
Our sister paper, the Irish Mail on Sunday, revealed this week that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want the Greens in government with them, and in recent weeks it revealed a plan from Fianna Fáil frontbencher John Lahart for a government to be established along the lines of the d’Hondt system, which is already used to form Oireachtas committees.
The d’Hondt – also known as Jefferson – system would give parties representation in cabinet in proportion to their Dáil representation. A national government along the lines proposed by Mr Ryan and Mr Lahart would see roughly the same number of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin ministers in Cabinet. Smaller parties like the Greens and Social Democrats would have fewer.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have agreed a programme for government. But their combined numbers of 72 are not enough to provide a Dáil majority. They had hoped the Green Party would join them. It is also known that Mr
Varadkar and Mr Martin oppose the idea of a national government. Senior sources in both parties have cited such an arrangement as a recipe for ‘indecision’.
Mr Ryan disagrees: ‘I think that it may be more possible than people think,’ he said. And when asked whether he thought a national government would be a recipe for indecision, he said: ‘It could be, and there are risks, because it is not the norm.’
But he added: ‘The norm is, you have opposition and government, you have arguments and that is a healthy part of democracy, but in these particular circumstances the more solidarity, the less arguments, the more collective is desirable. What needs to be done is clear, just for the crisis period, first and foremost you have to look after the health service, manage it through. Then you have to start the economic recovery, and as you’re doing it you’d want to steer towards whatever stimulus you need for a public health system and towards public housing.
‘There is an immediate responsibility on the health crisis, first of all. We’d have it [the national government] for just six months and we’d review it then, and maybe you’d have some parties who’d say “that’s it, we’ve done our bit”. And you’d have others that might continue and you’d form a government for the next four years.’
Mr Ryan – who was a minister in the 2007-2011 coalition that oversaw the economic crash – believes we are facing into a prolonged period of difficulty.
‘The economic aspects of this are going to roll on,’ said Mr Ryan, ‘The scale of the downturn is not going to disappear overnight.
Hopefully I’m wrong on that.’
The Green Party leader believes that a national government would make for more efficient formulation of legislation for tough measures. He said: The next few months is going to be continuation of what we’ve seen in the last few weeks: the enactment of unprecedented measures.’
‘Currently, with the legislation we are putting through, to be honest, we don’t have much opportunity for legislative scrutiny.
‘There are massive measures going through. A national government would allow everyone get more up-front engagement in that.
‘In a crisis like this you need full support for measures like these.’
On Mr Lahart’s proposal he says: ‘I agree, I think that is exactly the sort of approach we should take.’
Mr Ryan said that there would not be pressure in the next six months from the Greens for pursuit of their environmental policies.
‘We want to chip in, in terms of managing the health crisis, and this is the time when the immediate focus needs to be on facing coronavirus.
‘We need to do whatever we can to help.’
‘Listen, if it is working and people want to keep going, why stop?’ ‘The door isn’t shut and my job is to keep it open’