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Fine Gael parliamentary party has been told “we are still a long way from forming a new Government“ - “it will take several weeks before any potential Government involving Fine Gael can be formed, given the need to secure a third party to act as a third pillar of Government”
Not only does a deal have to be done but there is the need “for all parties to seek ratification of their party memberships” [well, duh]
I think some of Varadkar’s comments yesterday were misinterpreted. He said he wanted “a document” finalised with FF next week - that’s not a programme for government, it’s a “framework” (a sort of roadmap) for how they might propose to continue negotiations with other parties
Basically as it stands FG and FF are only talking about talks - FG in particular are keen not to just negotiate a Prog for Govt and then serve it up to junior partners as a fait accompli, they want to give them proper input
But given all six of the Dáil’s largest parties - SF, FF, FG, Greens, Lab, SD - need members to ratify any proposed programme for government, we’re going to be in this caretaker government lark for a while yet
(Which, humbly, is why we need a Dáil to try and exercise some democratic oversight of its functions when there is so much at stake)
