Crucial talks between Taoiseach Enda Kenny and new leader of the Labour Party Joan Burton on the Coalition's future policy direction and the shape of the new Cabinet are unlikely to conclude before Wednesday.
The Taoiseach will hold his first one-to-one meeting with Ms Burton today in her new role as Tánaiste in Government Buildings. The detailed negotiations may push back the anticipated Cabinet reshuffle until Wednesday at the earliest and result in the outgoing Cabinet holding its last weekly meeting tomorrow.
It is now increasingly likely that Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan will become an EU commissioner and that another Fine Gael vacancy will arise from the dropping of Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan from Cabinet.
Step down
Following Ruairí Quinn’s resignation announcement last week, Labour leader
Eamon Gilmore
and Minister for Communications
Pat Rabbitte
will also step down from Cabinet this week, leaving Ms Burton with three vacancies to fill.
One position will go to the party's new deputy leader Alan Kelly; that is likely to be the jobs and enterprise portfolio, if Labour succeeds in securing it. In return, the party will cede the foreign affairs portfolio. Defeated leadership candidate Alex White and his fellow Minister of State in Health, Kathleen Lynch, are the favourites for promotion.
Strong claims
Senior Labour sources were talking down suggestions that Senator
Ivana Bacik
may be made a minister on the basis that many party Dáil TDs had strong claims for promotion.
On the Fine Gael side, two Ministers of State, Paschal Donohoe and Paul Kehoe, have been tipped for promotion, with backbench TDs Regina Doherty and Dara Murphy also mentioned. Simon Coveney has been linked to foreign affairs, Leo Varadkar to environment, Richard Bruton to health and James Reilly to transport and tourism.
The initial focus of discussions between the two party leaders will be agreeing the political priorities that can see the Coalition serve out its full term until the spring of 2016.
Ms Burton will put a huge emphasis in talks on a “living wage”, on housing and on protecting public services, while Mr Kenny will focus on tax breaks for middle-income families, SME lending and jobs provision. Senior strategists in both parties view a strong agreement as pivotal for Fine Gael and Labour to recover electoral support.
