It has been confirmed in the past hour that both Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin will finally meet next week to hold crunch talks about a possible government formation.
It is understood the meeting between the two party leaders will take place after next Wednesday’s Dáil Taoiseach nomination vote. The meeting was confirmed when Micheál Martin revealed he had spoken to his political rival Mr Kenny in a 20-minute phone call earlier today. Speaking to reporters at Leinster House this afternoon, Fianna Fáil leader Mr Martin revealed that he did contact his Fine Gael counterpart this morning ahead of next week’s Taoiseach vote in the Dáil. Mr Martin said he said contacted the acting Taoiseach because he had read earlier reports which suggested the scheduled vote would not go ahead, however Mr Kenny denied the reports and instead insisted the vote will still take place.
Mr Martin told reporters: “Just before lunchtime I rang the taoiseach. In the first instance I told him I read reports there may be moves to defer the vote on Wednesday, the vote for taoiseach,” Mr Martin said this afternoon. “I made it clear I wouldn’t be supporting that, that I wanted it to go ahead next Wednesday and fall whatever way it falls. “He confirmed that the vote would go ahead, and also that we are engaged in that negotiation process with the Independents and that we would be having (talks) sessions on Monday on Tuesday. “We both agreed we would engage in the aftermath of that, and following conclusions on Wednesday.”
The Fianna Fáil leader also said despite the agreement for talks, he clearly stated that his party “wouldn’t be going into a grand coalition with Fine Gael”, and said he told Mr Kenny he was frustrated by acting Jobs Minister Richard Bruton’s comments yesterday that Fine Gael would not support a Fianna Fáil-led minority government, describing it as “intemperate language”.