Veteran Fine Gael member and former minister Nora Owen was in excellent form as she attended the first of the Fine Gael regional meetings to approve the programme for Government on Thursday night.
“Is this a picket line” she joked with the media as she made her way into the lobby of the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan, South Dublin.
Asked about the deal which would see Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and members of the Regional Independent Group form the next Government, she was unreserved in her support.
“And I’m glad that it didn’t take forever to get there you know, it was the end of November, and into Christmas so there was a timeline adhered to.”
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Asked about the likelihood that extra ministries would be created she said: “I imagine they did that with some reluctant in order to make sure that the Government would stay together.”
Ms Owen was less certain about non-ministerial members of the Regional Independents Group sitting on the opposition benches in the Dáil. “I’d like to know what the rules are” she said before recalling there was precedent for such a move.
“I remember when Tony Gregory was brought in and he had that famous Gregory deal,” she said. “Then there was Jackie Healy Rae,” she said “and Mildred Fox. And maybe Jim Kemmy.”
“They all sat in the opposition benches,” she said.
“They were all [former minister] Seamus [Brennan’s] friends and he was their nanny. To make sure nothing went wrong,” she said.
Taoiseach Simon Harris was somewhat more circumspect on the point saying: “I believe and I don’t want to stray to too much into their business, but my understanding is there’s members of that group who won’t be in the Government.”
Mr Harris said: “This issue can be resolved, and the person who is in a position to resolve it is the Ceann Comhairle and it’s the Ceann Comhairle’s job, not the Government, and I’ve no doubt she and any appropriate business committee or others will look at this issue in the round and in the way that works for everyone.”
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In relation to the extra ministries Mr Harris said two extra ministries had been in his party’s manifesto for Government. He said one of these was a dedicated minister for older people and another was a minister for fisheries.
“And then my understanding is when it comes to the third junior ministry, it is to have a focus on the issue of migration,” he said.
On her way into the hotel Minister for State Jennifer Carroll Mac Neill said “I think the complexity of the state has got considerably more, particularly on the infrastructure side, on what we need to do on energy, on the grid, on investment, and on the detail of that.”
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“I do think it’s helpful to have a bigger body of people who are able to get that work done,” she said.
As The Irish Times sought out the opinion ‘ordinary’ Fine Gael members one man, Declan Doherty, joked he was just there to do as his wife told him. He quickly added he was the husband of MEP Regina Doherty and was “instructed” to vote in favour of the deal.
Former Wicklow councillor Derek Mitchell said the issue of the junior ministers was not a big issue during the meeting to which the media were excluded. He said issues such as the MetroLink and broadband in Dublin had occupied a lot of time. “It was a bit of a pep talk” he said.
Fine Gael member Paul Kent from the Dublin Rathdown constituency said the meeting had been “very detailed but maybe a bit slow.” But he said it was good to head from senior members in the party and this had been appreciated by those present.
In the hotel the atmosphere was like a small ardfheis. Old friends greeted one another as on a night out. Hugs were exchanged. The meeting had been confined to Fine Gael members form Dublin and Wicklow but nobody seemed to mind the presence of Fianna Fáil Senator Gerry Horkan, who mingled with the members in the hotel lobby before the meeting stared. Mr Horkan said he was out to canvas transfer votes in the Seanad election. “I saw Paschal and the Taoiseach and nobody minded. I would be wrong to miss it. I only live in Goatstown up the road”.
It was that kind of night. No trouble expected.
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