‘Doomsday plan’ in place to deal with an Alliance split

SENIOR Fine Gael strategists are developing a ‘doomsday plan’ to deal with any split among the Independent Alliance deputies.

Should the increasingly fractious Alliance split and withdraw from Government, the current confidence and supply arrangement would be unsustainable.

One minister warned that the group ‘could fall apart over anything – we must be prepared’.

Government sources are now considering who they can and can’t do business with going forward, with one saying: ‘An election is not in any of our interests.’

The minister added: ‘The problems with the Independent Alliance are Halligan and Ross, we want to keep Finian, Canney and Boxer Moran. Michael Fitzmaurice is the glue that could hold them together.’