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On the evening of April 6, 2016, Enda Kenny met Micheal Martin in a small room located between Government Buildings and Leinster House.
During the hour-long rendezvous, the then Taoiseach offered the leader of Fianna Fail a five-year partnership government with a rotating Taoiseach, and equal number of cabinet ministers.
Mr Kenny left the meeting believing his offer had got a fair hearing and returned to brief his senior ministers, including Leo Varadkar on what had happened. “He didn’t rule it out!” Mr Kenny told them as he walked in the door.
Mr Martin talks very dismissively of that offer now, but at the time he slept on it and didn’t actually rule it out until he met Mr Kenny for a second time the following day. The meeting was shorter, breaking off after 10 or so minutes. Mr Martin said he rejected it in the national interest, saying the offer left “a lot to be desired” and was “driven by narrow party interests”.
It was another month before a Fine Gael-led minority government was eventually formed after the two parties cobbled together a confidence-and-supply deal following protracted talks in Trinity College that were dominated not by the crises in health and housing but how they would scrap water charges.
The alliance between the two largest parties in the State endured, against the odds and aided by the Brexit uncertainty, for just under four years. The opposition, particularly Sinn Fein, have in that period dismissed the arrangement as effectively the two parties governing together.
But it has also prompted serious figures in both parties to consider more openly the possibility of actually going into government together, including party grandees on both sides.
In October 2017, former Fianna Fail finance minister Ray MacSharry even claimed that he discussed the idea of a merger of the two parties with Michael Noonan in the 1980s.
“There was quite a level of agreement about it at the time, but the heads [party leaders] wouldn’t hear tell of it and still won’t,” Mr MacSharry told me. For what it’s worth, Mr Noonan, who has retired from politics, said in 2016 he would “never” go into Government with Fianna Fail.
Last week Mr MacSharry was more reserved and on-message. “Fianna Fail have ruled it out and I think they’re right. It’s not going to be easy to ever make that arrangement unless you have a long-term government for five years,” he said.
His son Marc MacSharry, who is running for re-election in Sligo-Leitrim, was in favour of the grand coalition offer in 2016, as were others in Fianna Fail at the time, including TDs John McGuinness and Bobby Aylward.
In this election Mr Martin’s firm rejection of the idea is parroted by his deputies and candidates who are keen to maintain discipline in the campaign.
Privately, they are a bit looser about the reality that could face them if Fianna Fail does not have sufficient numbers to form a government with smaller parties and Independents. Incidentally, the same applies among some Fianna Fail TDs when it comes to the idea of coalescing with Sinn Fein.
The past four years was not the first time Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have co-operated. Between 1987 and 1989, Charlie Haughey’s Fianna Fail minority government was supported in Dail votes by Alan Dukes’s Fine Gael under the so-called Tallaght Strategy.
Mr Dukes told the Sunday Independent that he believes grand coalition could become “the only viable option” after this election. “I used to worry that it would solidify the left, but the way they are performing, they are a long way away from becoming a coherent voice.
“If that’s the case then why not have the grand coalition. I think both of the larger parties will find that somewhat less objectionable than going in with Sinn Fein.”
In Fine Gael there is growing support for the idea at all levels, which is indicative of the party’s seemingly growing acceptance that it will not be in a position to form a government after next weekend. Party figures argue that the country will need a stable government as the Brexit trade talks enter a crucial phase.
Fianna Fail thinks differently, of course, with Mr Martin straight-out rejecting Mr Varadkar’s idea that it would be a coalition of last resort if all other options for government formation failed. Mr Martin remains supremely confident of his ability to have enough seats and enough support among smaller parties and Independents to put together a government. But if he doesn’t he will have to look elsewhere to fulfil his ambition to be Taoiseach.
This weekend he is not ruling out Fine Gael supporting him under a confidence-and-supply deal.
Figures in both parties are more concerned about the rise in support for Sinn Fein than ever before, acknowledging that the surge in the polls is evident on the ground. “There is definitely Sinn Fein growth,” said a senior Fianna Fail figure.
If they are both to remain true to their word of not doing a deal with Mary Lou McDonald then they may have to seriously think about sitting down with each other once again.
Politics, and more specifically government formation, is and will forever be about numbers and after voters go to the polls on Saturday they expect their elected politicians to give them a government – not a second election
Just as in 2016, it may take 70 days and many false dawns for that reality to hit home amongst senior politicians. But when it does, don’t be surprised if it involves the big two doing another deal of some sort and if that is the case it will make the argument against a full-blown grand coalition increasingly redundant.
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| Subject: | Fwd: The Irish Times Must Also Accept the Will of the Irish People as Expressed in the General Election of 8 February 2020 (Gerald Morgan, Dublin):: ‘We must Have Unity Not Empty Rhetoric’ (Gerald Morgan, Dublin, Sunday Independent, 22 March 2020):: We’re All In This Together, But Not At 203 EURO Per Week |
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| Date: | Tue, 24 Mar 2020 14:36:55 +0000 |
| From: | Gerald Morgan <[email protected]> |
| Reply-To: | [email protected] |
| To: | [email protected], [email protected] |
VBW: GM
I am grateful to the Sunday Independent for publishing this. The first sentence has mostly been removed, and I imagine that my friends will on the whale be grateful for this.Kind regards,Gerald Morgan FTCD (Leader: English Parliamentary Party, 2001)Dr Gerald Morgan, FTCD (1993)
Lydbrook School (1946-1953),Monmouth School (1953-1961),Meyricke Exhibitioner, Jesus College, Oxford (1961-1964),D.Phil. (Oxon.), 1973Director:The Chaucer Hub.
Per pale argent and gules, a bend counterchangedOn Sat, Mar 21, 2020 at 12:27 AM Gerald Morgan <[email protected]> wrote:I have seen the dismay on the faces of the young receptionists, cleaning staff and waiters as their jobs, security and livelihoods have disappeared in a moment.I know that they cannot live on 203 euro per week. Our TDs of all persuasions ought to try it if they are in any doubt.The figure that is required is of the order of 450-500 euro per week.We live in a sovereign republic. It is now the duty of Dail Eireann and Seanad Eireann to show that there is more to unity and togetherness than empty rhetoric.All our TDs must show that in this moment of historic crisis we are indeed all in this together as we might not have been, for example, in the Great Famine..The tragic history of Ireland tells us more eloquently than anything else what we must do in March 2020.Kind regards,Gerald Morgan, FTCD (Leader: English Parliamentary Party, 2001)
Dr Gerald Morgan, FTCD (1993)
Lydbrook School (1946-1953),Monmouth School (1953-1961),Meyricke Exhibitioner, Jesus College, Oxford (1961-1964),D.Phil. (Oxon.), 1973Director:The Chaucer Hub.
Tel.: 086 456 56 60
Per pale argent and gules, a bend counterchanged
Finian Fallon wants the ‘truth’
The son of the first garda killed in the Troubles has called for an all-island truth and reconciliation process.
Garda Richard Fallon was shot in April 1970 on Arran Quay in Dublin in the course of a bank robbery by members of Saor Eire, a republican terrorist group.
The 43-year-old’s murder sparked outrage, and O’Connell Street was lined with mourners on the day of his funeral.
A ceremony and unveiling of a plaque had been planned for the 50th anniversary of his murder, but it has been postponed due to coronavirus.
Gda Fallon’s son, Finian, said it sparked such a reaction as it was the first death of an Irish policeman on duty since 1942.
“People compared it to John F Kennedy’s funeral in terms of the size, people were lining O’Connell Street to support him,” Mr Fallon said.
“I was four – I remember bits of it, I remember walking up to the graveyard, coats all around me, and I threw a daffodil in after the coffin,” he said.
Mr Fallon said he does not expect justice, but simply wants to know the truth and has called for an all-Ireland truth and reconciliation process.
“I do think the Government and others should acknowledge what went on. The State hasn’t acknowledged its part yet, and I think it’s somewhat cowardly, to be honest,” he said.
“There’s a peace, but it’s not necessarily peace for the victims. The victims are still living with their suffering.”
Mr Fallon said there was controversy over where the guns that killed his father had come from.
The same year saw the Arms Crisis, during which Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney were dismissed as cabinet ministers for alleged involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle arms to the IRA in the North.