Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin is set to become the next Taoiseach as a coalition government between his party, Fine Gael and the Greens edges ever closer.
The parties have been in intense negotiations in recent days as they bring the government formation talks to an end, more than four months after the General Election was held.
According to the Irish Times, it’s understood that Martin and Leo Varadkar will rotate the Taoiseach’s role, with Varadakar indicting to reporters in Dublin this morning that Fianna Fáil will hold the office first.
If so, it will mean that the Cork politician, who has been leader of Fianna Fáil since 2011 will become the party’s latest Taoiseach.
Up to now he has been the only Fianna Fáil leader never to be Taoiseach.
The draft programme for government is expected to be signed off on today and will then be put to the members of the three parties for ratifications. It’s possible that all three parties will be expected to vote at the same time.
The coming together of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, albeit with the support of the Green Party, signals the end of the old ‘civil war politics’, which dates back a century.
Both main parties actually lost seats in the February General Election as Sinn Féin experienced their greatest election success and number of seats.
But Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil didn’t enter negotiations with Sinn Féin, and Sinn Féin couldn’t get sufficient support from other left parties and Independents to form a majority.
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