Waiting for Government (with apologies to Beckett)
For all the earnestness that undoubtedly is invested in the ongoing Lanigan’s Ball-style talks between Fine Gael and the assortment of smaller parties and Independents, there is no doubt that these are just the nibbles before the meat-and-potatoes feast involving Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.
Of course, we’ve also had the distraction of the Easter 1916 Commemorations.
And the fortunate absence of any major financial crisis hitting our shores has also deflected attention from the fact that we are several weeks now without a functioning government. But this cannot go on indefinitely.
Behind the scenes, there are a whole range of important policy issues building up on the desks of senior Civil Servants that, in the normal course of events, would be brought to the relevant Minister for decision and execution. Given that we only have an acting Taoiseach and Cabinet of Ministers they do not have the moral authority to take any significant decisions; and no-one knows that better than those Ministers.
It is also a fact that no matter what agreements may be thrashed out between Fine Gael, and the smaller parties/Independents, their political fate is meaningless if not underwritten in due course by some form of voting pact between the two largest parties in the new, 32nd Dail.
Fine Gael cannot govern without the approval of Fianna Fail, and the converse equally applies. Whether that approval takes the form of a full-blown, power-sharing administration, or some Tallaght Strategy-type endorsement from the Opposition benches, remains to be seen and will undoubtedly take days of intensive negotiations between both parties.
It is a political chalice that neither of these parties wants to sup from, but at the end of the day the country needs a government. It is already past time therefore for the shadow-boxing and the political posturing to come to an end, and for these two parties to accept the inevitable, and to sit down and parley.
A failure of Enda Kenny and Micheal Martin to face up to this most challenging of political tasks will probably result in a fairly unforgiving response from the general public. And who would get the blame? Both sides most likely.
It’s obvious therefore that, aside from all the rather banal comments that continue to emanate from the various representatives of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in the endless round of media outings, there is some serious soul-searching, and follow-on actions, that both parties must undertake. And the sooner the better. After the next meeting of the new Dail, on Tuesday next (April 5th), government-formation talks will have to begin in earnest.