Main points
- Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have agreed a programme for government with nine Independent TDs - giving a Dáil majority of 17.
- The new government will take office after Micheál Martin is elected taoiseach next Wednesday.
- Three new Minister of State roles will be created, bringing the number of junior ministers to a new high of 23.
- Fianna Fáil will hold the role of Taoiseach for longer than Fine Gael under the agreement.
- Join The Irish Times WhatsApp channel for breaking news straight to your phone.
Key Reads
- Analysis: The word “explore” appears 34 times and “examine” 86 times
- Main points: What is in the programme for government?
- Listen: In The News podcast – The deals, calculations and compromises behind the new government
There will also be a Super Junior Minister in the Department of Transport with responsibility for ports, roads and railways, and that role is expected to be taken by Independent TD Seán Canney, according to Marie O’Halloran.
Longford-Westmeath TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran will be junior minister for the OPW, while Independent TD Marian Harkin is set to be Minister of State in the Department of Further and Higher Education.
Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is also thought to be in line for a senior role but reports that she might get the Department of Health job have been described as “just speculation”.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee is thought likely to move to another department, with talk currently centred around Enterprise. There is much speculation about who will succeed her with the department set to move to Fianna Fáil.
Minister of State James Browne, who championed much of the long-awaited Gambling Bill, is being tipped by some for the role, but so is Jim O’Callaghan, a barrister and senior counsel.
Fianna Fáil will also keep housing, and it is thought Darragh O’Brien will stay on as Minister.
Speculation is continuing about who will get what jobs in the new administration, according to Marie O’Halloran, who has been on the phones trying to glean where the chips might fall.
She says Fine Gael Kildare South TD and Minister of State for Agriculture Martin Heydon, who was involved in the government formation talks is currently tipped for the senior agriculture job.
Galway West TD Noel Grealish has been assigned a super junior ministerial role on food innovation, marketing and exports, while Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae will be minister of state role for forestry.
There will be 23 Ministers of State in the new Government, a historic high for any government. Five of those junior minister will be Independent TDs. But how much will they be paid?
All TDs are entitled to a basic salary of €113,679 per annum.
Ministers of State receive an extra €45,846, equating to a total basic pay of €159,525.
Ministers of State who attend Cabinet are entitled to a further salary top up of €13,145. That tots up to a basic salary of €172,670 for super junior ministers.
Under current rules, junior ministers have to forgo a Travel and Accommodation Allowance afforded to other deputies. However, The Irish Daily Mail reported on Thursday that, under a new arrangement, incoming junior ministers will be able to claim overnight expenses.
Government will create three additional junior minister roles
The Government is to create three additional Minister of State roles, bringing the number of Junior ministers to an historic high of 23, Marie O’Halloran reports. Legislation will be required to allow for the extra ministers and for the appointment of the fourth super junior Cabinet member.
The new administration plans to give each of the three ministers specific responsibility for asylum/migration, the marine and older people as pledged in the Programme for Government.
Government sources confirmed that the law will have to be amended to allow for the appointment of the three additional government members and for the appointment of a fourth super junior minister.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers had expressed discontent that Independent TDs had secured two super junior roles and three junior minister roles out of a total of 35 appointments, which include the 15 senior Cabinet Ministers and 20 Ministers of State including Super Juniors.
But a Government spokesman said the additional positions were needed to ensure a “strong and stable government” particularly in light of the challenges ahead and because the population has grown by 20 per cent in a generation. The State is bound by the Constitutional restriction on 15 senior Ministers and the workload had grown significantly in these areas, the spokesman added.
The Irish Times view on programme for government: a vague and contradictory wishlist
The draft programme for government amounts to little more than a set of vague, aspirational spending promises drawn from the manifestos of the two big parties to the deal. To achieve even a portion of what is promised, the public finances will need to remain healthy, which is far from guaranteed. Hard choices lie ahead, particularly given the emerging threats to Ireland’s economic model, but you wouldn’t know it from the document.
Fianna Fáil secures substantially longer stint in taoiseach’s office
Political Editor Pat Leahy reports: 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.
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″. In practical terms, that means that the next election should be held either in late 2029 or in early 2030 (the latest it can be is late February 2030) – the same choice that faced the outgoing government last year.
Martin will be taoiseach for 1028 days – the length of time between next Wednesday and November 16th, 2027. How long Harris is in the taoiseach’s office depends on when the next general election is. If the government chooses to have the election 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, then he will be taoiseach for an additional 54 days, bringing it up to 798 days.
Either is significantly behind Fianna Fáil’s share of time in the taoiseach’s office – a reflection of the fact Fianna Fáil won ten more seats than Fine Gael.
Social Democrats TD Sinead Gibney has suggested that verbal deals were done with Independent TDs during government-formation talks.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, Ms Gibney said the actual programme for government seemed to be “a crude coalition of the two Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael manifestoes”.
“There doesn’t seem to be much presence of the rural Independents within that document. So the question then becomes: well, what are they getting? And I think what we’re hearing is that it’s not in writing, but it is very clearly the case.
“We all, of course, within the Dáil, push for our own consistency, but it absolutely should not be a negotiation within the development of a programme for government which is for the people of Ireland.”
Ms Gibney said she hoped that the new government could address the “really significant problems” in Irish society, but she felt that the main parties and the Independents were “really dancing around the issue”. – Vivienne Clarke
Kerry TDs Michael and Danny Healy-Rae will not be “whipped” when it comes to “fundamental issues” and “matters of conscience”.
Michael Healy-Rae told Radio Kerry that they 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 and we like to think we’re very humble in that regard – when it comes to matters such as abortion, such as assisted dying or anything like that, we’re not changing our views.
“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 that once they did a deal, they would stick with it “through thick and thin”.
They went to Dublin and “put their cards on the table” in the government-formation talks. They had highlighted concerns about projects in Kerry that had been “stalled” which they now expected to see “progressed”. – Vivienne Clarke
Catherine Cox, head of communications with Family Carers Ireland, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that while the government’s decision to abolish the means test for family carers – a barrier in accessing vital financial support – was welcome, there was a need to ensure that the pledge was implemented and translated into reality as past commitments have not always materialised.
“There are significant promises in this draft programme for government,” Ms Cox said. “If they were truly executed ... this would have a real positive impact on family carers’ lives.”
Elaine Tighe, chief executive of Disability Federation, said on Morning Ireland that commitments to those with disabilities in the programme for government was “promising”. – Vivienne Clarke
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty 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.”
