Fianna Fáil has secured a substantially longer period in the taoiseach’s office than Fine Gael under the terms of the programme for government, an examination of its terms reveal.
Party leader Micheál Martin is expected to be elected taoiseach next Wednesday when the Dáil meets and he – or the next leader of Fianna Fáil, in the event of his resignation – will remain in the office until November 16th, 2027.
Simon Harris – or whoever is leader of Fine Gael at that point – will then become taoiseach with the support of Fianna Fáil and Independent deputies and will remain in office until after the next election.
According to the programme for government, the date of the next election will be agreed between the two party leaders, but will be called “no sooner than after the enactment of the principal measures to be announced in the budget in late 2029″.
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In practical terms, that means the next election should be held either in late 2029 or in early 2030, which is the same scenario that faced the outgoing government last year. The latest the next general election can be held is February 2030.
Mr Martin will be taoiseach for 1,028 days – the length of time between next Wednesday and November 16th, 2027. The length of time Mr Harris is in the taoiseach’s office will depend on when the next general election is held.
If the next election is held on November 29th, 2029 – exactly five years after the last election – Harris will be taoiseach for 744 days, plus however long it takes to form a government afterwards.
If you count to January 22nd, 2030, he will be taoiseach for an additional 54 days, bringing it up to 798 days.
Either scenario is significantly behind Fianna Fáil’s share of time in the taoiseach’s office – a reflection of the fact Fianna Fáil won 10 more seats than Fine Gael.
Meanwhile, Kerry TDs Michael and Danny Healy-Rae have said they will not be “whipped” when it comes to “fundamental issues” and “matters of conscience”.
Michael Healy-Rae told Radio Kerry the brothers would not be changing their views on issues such as abortion and assisted dying.
“On matters of conscience – because there might be a lot of people that would be religious people and people of faith – when it comes to matters such as abortion, such as assisted dying or anything like that, we’re not changing our views,” he said. “Our own opinions on issues like that, because if there would be votes in the future on matters such as that, they would be free votes.”
He added: “When it comes to the fundamentals we’re not changing that way for anyone, but we will be loyal servants of this government, and we would represent the government and we will fly the flag for the government.”
Mr Healy-Rae said they would honour the deal done, and stick with the next government “through thick and thin”.
He said the brothers went to Dublin and “put their cards on the table” in government formation talks. They had highlighted concerns about projects in Kerry that had been “stalled” which they now expected to see “progressed”.
Elsewhere, there was criticism of the programme for government from Opposition groups, as Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said voters would be getting a continuation of the past five years.
He said there was “nothing new” in the programme for government. “There’s no big ideas. There’s no vision,” he said.
“If people wanted a continuation of what we had under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael under the last five years – that’s what they’ve got.
“Indeed, the word ‘continue’ appears 249 times in the report – so, that’s the dominant factor in this programme for government and I think that’s disappointing.”
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