FINE GAEL APPEARS to remain undecided on how to vote in Wednesday’s Dáil ballot on whether to ratify Ireland’s bailout deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, today’s Sunday Times reports.
The paper says that while Labour has committed to voting against the plan when a division is taken this week, Fine Gael are less unequivocal in their proposed stance on the €67.5bn deal.
While former deputy leader Richard Bruton said it was ‘not a foregone conclusion’ that the party would vote against the deal – apparently placated by the confirmation from Brussels that it would be able to negotiate the terms of the deal, which is based on the Four Year Plan – the party’s communications spokesman Leo Varadkar said Fine Gael support for the deal was ‘unlikely’.
“I anticipate our decision will be what it was when we saw the details of the bailout… that is, we don’t think it’s a good deal,” Varadkar told the Sunday Times.
“I expect we’ll be putting down a reasoned amendment detailing our objections, and we won’t be supporting it.”
Fianna Fáil said on Thursday that it would put a vote on the deal on the Dáil agenda for this week, saying a vote would add political legitimacy to the deal, and that it would “force the opposition to take a definitive stance on the matter”.
Chief whip John Curran this morning upped the ante further, saying Fine Gael could not “use this glib line that the government will have the numbers, so they will oppose the motion.
“Fine Gael must recognise that a resounding Dáil vote in favour of the motion, including Fine Gael support, would send a loud and clear message to the international community of Ireland’s resolve to battle our way back”.
On Friday evening, whipless Fianna Fáil TD Mattie McGrath said he would vote against the bailout – meaning the Dáil would be set to tie if the government was supported, as usual, by independents Jackie Healy-Rae and Michael Lowry and Fine Gael was to vote against it.
A tied vote – in which case only the casting vote of the Ceann Comhairle, Seamus Kirk, could approve the bailout – would be avoided, however, if former Fianna Fáil TD Joe Behan was to support the government, as he had done in this week’s Budget votes.
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