The leader of Ireland’s Labour Party has held talks with the taoiseach and tanaiste as efforts to form a new coalition government intensify.

Ivana Bacik had separate meetings with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris on Tuesday afternoon.

Fianna Fail, which won 48 seats in last month’s general election, and Fine Gael, which secured 38 seats, headed up the last coalition in Dublin and are expected to continue that partnership into the next mandate.

However, with a combined 86 seats, they are just short of the 88 required for a majority in the Dail parliament.

If they wish to return to government together, they would need one smaller party as a junior partner, or a handful of independents.

Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have ruled out doing business with Sinn Fein, which won 39 seats.

The centre-left Social Democrats and Irish Labour Party, both of which won 11 seats in the election, are seen as the only two realistic options if Fianna Fail and Fine Gael seek to convince a smaller party to join the coalition.

In a statement, the Labour Party said Bacik outlined key policy priorities in her meetings with Taoiseach Harris and Tanaiste Martin.

‘There was discussion in both meetings on policies and manifesto commitments on housing, health, climate, workers’ rights and disability services among other issues,’ said the statement.

‘The parliamentary party will meet at 1pm on Friday where the party leader will provide an assessment of engagement to date and consider the outcome of these meetings.’

A spokesman for Harris said there had been a ‘constructive engagement’ with Bacik.

‘The taoiseach is grateful for the time and engagement on a range of substantial policy issues,’ he said.

The spokesman said Harris had also met independent TDs who are aligned together in what is called the regional group.

‘These meetings have been productive,’ he added.

Harris and party colleagues are due to meet the Social Democrats on Wednesday.

Fianna Fail Deputy Leader Jack Chambers and Fine Gael Deputy Leader Helen McEntee met on Tuesday evening for discussions on government formation, with the parties’ full negotiating teams set to meet on Wednesday.

Fine Gael said the meeting between McEntee and Chambers was ‘positive’ and focused on the ‘structure and format’ of the substantive negotiations going forward.

When the two parties entered coalition for the first time after the last general election in 2020, there was only a three-seat difference in their relative strength.

That resulted in an equal partnership at the head of the coalition, with the Green Party as the junior partner. The two main parties swapped the role of taoiseach halfway through the term.

With Fianna Fail’s lead over Fine Gael having grown to 10 seats following this election, focus has turned to the future of the rotating taoiseach arrangement and whether it will operate again in the next mandate and, if so, on what basis.

There are similar questions around the distribution of ministries and other roles.

While Martin has so far refused to be drawn on the specifics, he has suggested that he expects Fianna Fail’s greater strength of numbers to be reflected in the new administration.

However, Harris has insisted that Fine Gael’s mandate cannot be taken for granted when it comes to government formation.

Richard Boyd Barrett from People Before Profit-Solidarity, which won three seats, urged Labour not to ‘prop up’ up a Fianna Fail/Fine Gael administration.

‘We think that’s a huge mistake,’ he told reporters in Dublin.

‘They shouldn’t do it. They should learn the lessons of the past and actually work with other parties of the left to form a decent left opposition to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and campaign on the issues that matter.’

His party colleague Paul Murphy pointed to the experience of the Green Party, which lost all but one of its 12 seats in the election.

‘In reality, what is going to happen is a changing of the mudguard for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael,’ he said.

‘And for those who are now auditioning to be a new mudguard for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, there is a very, very sharp and stark lesson in what happened to the Green Party – obviously almost entirely wiped out.

‘We think it is a very major mistake for anyone who has the perception of being left, with the votes of people who are looking left, to seek to go into coalition with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.’

source: PA

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