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LAST UPDATE | 26 Jun 2020
THE VOTES FROM all three parties who balloted their members on the programme for government will be counted today.
The count results from the Green Party, Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael are expected to be announced at around 6pm this evening.
All eyes will be on the Greens, the party that arguably had the hardest task this week, with party rules setting out that they need the approval of two-thirds of their membership.
It also remains to be seen whether members of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will give the green light to entering into a historic coalition together.
What does it all mean?
After weeks of negotiations, the three parliamentary parties agreed on a programme for government earlier this month.
For it to be accepted, the membership of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party all have to endorse it.
Over the last week, postal votes were issued to all members and returned to party head offices.
The ratification processes in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens are all different.
Fine Gael has an electoral college which is weighted towards the parliamentary party, which means they only have 700 votes to count.
The parliamentary party make up 50% of the vote, followed by constituency delegates (25%), councillors (15%) and the party’s executive council (10%).
Their count is expected to begin around lunchtime today, and due to the small number of votes, is expected to be relatively short.
The count will be streamed on Facebook, with the overall result due between 3pm and 4pm.
The Green Party, which has around 2,000 postal votes to count, will begin at around noon. The Greens final result is the one everyone will be watching.
It is expected the results will be announced between 6pm and 7pm. If there is a recount, it could be later.
Fianna Fáil has a one member, one vote system. Their votes will take a lot longer to count than Fine Gael or the Greens due to the party having around 14,500 votes to count.
Fianna Fáil’s count is also expected to be completed at around 6pm.
While it had been expected that all parties had agreed to co-ordinate the announcement of party votes today, it is expected the results of the three parties will be announced separately.
If the programme for government is passed, there is not much time before the Dáil sits to elect a new Taoiseach, and for a new Cabinet to be announced.
The Dáil cannot sit in Leinster House on Saturday, due to social distancing restrictions.
A full sitting of the Dáil is required to elect the Taoiseach so all 160 TDs must be in attendance.
Instead the Dáil will sit at 10.30am on Saturday in the Convention Centre in Dublin, so as to allow TDs to sit apart when they vote to elect a new Taoiseach.
The building has been fitted out so that the seating arrangements resemble the Dáil chamber as closely as is possible.
There are strict health and safety guidelines in operation in the centre due to Covid-19, with only a limited number of people allowed to enter the building during the day.
Once Micheál Martin (who will get the first chance of being Taoiseach before passing the job onto to Leo Varadkar in 2022) is elected, he will visit President Michael D Higgins in Áras an Uachtaráin and seek permission to form a government.
He will then return to Government Buildings, where he will select his Cabinet ministers, before returning to the Convention Centre where the new Cabinet will be announced.
Speaking to reporters yesterday after what is expected to be the last Cabinet meeting of this government, Varadkar seemed confident that all three parties would vote in favour of entering into government:
“My prediction is the three parties will vote to go into coalition with each other. The yes vote will be larger than people expect in all three parties. There will be a new government.”
He also said the three leaders were still negotiating over the shake up of departments.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath said his party is confident it will receive support for the Programme for Government from its members.
McGrath said restoring and rebuilding the economy and would be a priority for the incoming government, adding that Fianna Fáil will be in a better position when in government than during a confidence-and-supply arrangement.
“[It's] an outstanding opportunity as a political party to secure our identity,” he said.
Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, meanwhile, said he thinks the vote will be carried by Fine Gael members.
He said members “are keen to keep our identity” during a period in coalition.
Burke said support for the Programme for Government grew as talks continued “and people believe what we now need is a stable government that will last for a period of time”.
Stay with TheJournal.ie for all the latest over the next two days. Keep up with the latest by following @thejournal_ie, and Political Correspondent @christinafinn8.
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The Greek government is really frustrating not only has Europe bent over backward to help them while Ireland like the mugs are government are pay the full price of a bailout but now they do this, I never agree with sarkozy but on this occasion I do!!
Let’s be honest, the Greeks deserve little sympathy for the disgraceful way they cooked the books to get into Europe, the way they continually run their country in the awful manner and in the way they have been expectibg everybody else to sort out their problems with no negative ramifications.
But I don’t have a problem with them having a referendum on what will be a huge financial decision made by a country that could effect millions for decades. It is a truly democratic act. Irrespective of whether or not the Greeks caused their own downfall , it’s an act of oppression for European leaders to force savage cuts without the agreement of the Greek people.
Don’t want to hear that Greece signed up to this with eu as nobody who signed upto join Europe envisaged this scenario.
While it annoys and puts the rest of us out, I think the Greek government gave its people the choice to take harsh medicine or go down a potentially harder route. For me that’s very much less efficient then taking the tough choices for your country but it’s as democratic as it gets.
Stable door, horse bolt, shutting afterwards …. Etc etc
what an outrageous suggestion to let the people affected by the austerity measures decide their fate …thank god our government aren’t that foolish and continue to do our thinking for us
I’d welcome a referendum here. It’d be good to see those who advocate a rejection of the IMF and a unilateral default lay their cards on the table. I think the response of the Irish people would be interesting when they see the figures.
ok to all the people who may have had a sarcasm by pass… i will spell it out plainly… we should have had a referendum 2 years ago but those in power (in their wisdom) decided that they know whats best for US and we should just put up and shut up and take the austerity medicine …in order to protect their own elitist asses….
Where do they expect the money to come from? Is it not a clever tactic by papandreou to make them tow the line a bit? Surely they’ll have to vote yes whether they really want it or not and then he proceeds effectively with the support of the nation, rather than taking the blame for the decision himself, the whole country make the decision which in turn might diminish the civil unrest……either that of they kick off big style, vote no and then he’s F*****d!!!
The wording of the referendum will be vital. They probably won’t define what No means. If it was defined as ‘Greece unilaterally defaults and leaves Euro’ then Greeks might vote Yes. If it is defined ‘Greece will reject this deal and look for a better one’ then it will probably be a No vote.
But I can see the ECB etc getting rightly frustrated with this. They might frame the No vote as being a rejection by Greece of the Euro and just accept that Greece is defaulting and leaving the Euro. it’d be very tempting to be rid of the Greek problem once and for all. Taxpayers in Germany would love the idea. But the worries about how bad Greece might get would probably be too much. However bad Greece is, it could get a hell of a lot worse.
I Presume a referendum will take months to arrange (and probably be lost) and all the while the rest of Europe suffers more Market turmoil. I also presume no mention was made by the Greeks of a referendum when agreeing to an extremely generous bailout package. If that be the case, the deal should be taken off the table and let Greece paddle it’s own (very leaky) canoe outside of the Eurozone. Better to stand back and watch Greece burn rather than fiddle while the rest of us do.
We are watching what will be the end of euro. Greece will never be able to service there debt, Italy is now in trouble with Portugal,Spain,Belgium & Ireland all waiting in the wings. Hopefully they find away for members to return to there own currency’s and dissolve the euro. Not an easy task I know.
We all know this going to end in tears, so why keep dragging it out. Let’s ended it know and start the rebuilding process sooner rather than later.
Europes grand fudge began to unravel yesterday before Greeces referendum announcement.
China’s official statement on Sunday that it will not be bailing Europe out put the initial spanner in the works.
EU leaders proposal is heavy on aspiration but light on concrete measures.
Europes crisis may well overtake events before any Greek poll.
At long last.. the turkeys will have a say on Christmas.
This is brilliant move. Watch the suits shaking in their boots and remember keep laughing when they start the scaremongering. The fairy story called capitalism a la brothers Grimm is coming to an end.
End it now guys and put away your lovely lecterns over there in Brussels. Professional unelected bullying is not a real job anyway and I fear you will all find it quite hard back with the rest of us in the real world here on planet Earth
Home of democracy allows its citizens exercise democracy at the ballot box. Seems reasonable. How many in Ireland would have voted through the Cowen-Lenihan bak guarantee?
Depends on the alternative. No doubt you wod paint No, and unilateral default, as being fantastic. Let’s have your vote nw and see how things stand. Let’s see if the unions are happy with the bailout or want a default. Lets see if the multinationals are spooked by a unilateral default. Let’s see how Sinn Fein plan to balance the books when the country has no access to borrowing.
Let’s see some facts and figures. I want to see this populist message that telling the IMF to get stuffed will mean that the government will be able to spend more money really get explained in detail to the Irsh people.
The Cowen-Lenihan bank guarantee shifted the private debts of the banks onto the sovereign balance sheet, the taxpayer balance sheet in effect. The knock on effect has produced NAMA, the majority of its debt is due to just 650 borrowers, and bumper bank recapitalisations. Meanwhile, in the midst of all this ‘recovery’ and fixing ‘systemic’ banks such as Anglo and INBS, credit is tighter than ever, property prices are still falling, mortgage distress is worsening, insolvencies in SMEs are ‘levelling out’ after four years of a flood, unemployment is topped at an artificial ‘low’ of 450k due to emigration, record numbers in third level and in various schemes. Having referendums on policies that carry the risk of bankrupting one if not two generations, and tearing up the social fabric of families for decades, do not strike me as unreasonable.
3 holes in EU’s debt plan. Not including any hint as to how renewed growth is to be achieved.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/31/european-debt-deal-holes/?section=money_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_topstories+%28Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+International
Only growth will resolve Europes crisis.
http://ukhousebubble.blogspot.com/2011/10/only-economic-growth-can-resolve.html?m=1
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