Ireland’s two main centre-right parties to form coalition government

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Ireland’s two main centre-right parties have clinched a deal with a group of independent lawmakers to form a coalition government, six weeks after an election that wiped out the Greens as a political force.

In the deal, sealed on Wednesday, Fianna Fáil’s leader, Micheál Martin, will become taoiseach, or prime minister, for the first three years of the five-year government, with the incumbent Fine Gael leader, Simon Harris, taking over in November 2027.

The two parties, which led the outgoing coalition, had been in talks since they fell short of a ruling majority in the 29 November election, in which the Greens, their junior coalition partner, also lost all but one of their seats.

According to the plan, Harris will become deputy prime minister with an expanded foreign affairs role including international trade, in a move to beef up diplomatic efforts to head off any risk to Ireland’s economy during the Donald Trump administration in the United States.

The country’s economy is heavily reliant on US multinationals for corporate tax, with Apple, Pfizer, Intel and Microsoft all basing their European headquarters in Ireland. Trump, whose inauguration as president is due to take place on Monday, has already indicated a desire to repatriate jobs.

The new programme for government, released on Wednesday, was hammered out over five weeks of negotiations involving the two centre right parties and a group of seven members of the Regional Independent Group, as well as two independents from County Kerry, Michael and Danny Healy-Rae, who are brothers.

In a joint statement, Martin and Harris said their focus was “a strong and stable government” that would seek to continue progress on the economy, infrastructure, housing and public services over the next five years.

The 162-page draft programme for government must be ratified by the parties and independents before the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament, returns next Wednesday to form the 34th government of Ireland.

James Lawless, a Teachta Dála (TD) from Fianna Fáil, said the programme captured what modern Ireland needed, including investment in digitalisation, sustainable energy, housing, health and education.

It was about “really steeling ourselves for the five years ahead, which could be uncertain, which could be turbulent both home and abroad”, he told RTÉ.

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Top of the priorities is a government aim to build 300,000 new homes by 2030 to address the chronic shortage of accommodation for sale or rent in Ireland. There is also a commitment to push ahead with the occupied territories bill, which would restrict trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. However, many believe the bill could still founder in the face of pressure from the US.

In November’s election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael received almost exactly the same combined share of the vote (43%) as they did in 2020. The former won more seats, with 48 to Fine Gael’s 38. Sinn Féin, the former political wing of the IRA, won 39 seats.

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International | Politik|