The political merry go round is still going around as we a no nearer to finding out who will lead the next Government, and now it seems the much talked about Fine Gael/Fianna Fail coalition is all but dead in the water, after the Fianna Fail leader Michael Martin claimed there is no chance of his party joining forces with the now former Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his party.
The Fianna Fail leader who recently said he would abolish the much hated water charges, told the Dail that the Irish people did not vote for a Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition.
Mr Martin, who firmly has his sights on being top dog also told the Dail recently that the mandate given to him was to change the Government. Mr Martin, said: “We didn’t get a mandate to go into government with Fine Gael and we certainly didn’t get a mandate to put Fine Gael back into government.”
“Our objective in terms of the present situation is that the people voted for change,” Mr Martin said. “They rejected this government emphatically. It is very clear from looking at that in the chamber today, where you see the physical manifestation of the transformational result. From our perspective we want to recognise that change and we’ve already been in talks with Independents and with smaller groupings.”
“We signalled to those groupings and they agreed we would intensify our negotiations in the aftermath of today’s vote [on the taoiseach]. We’ll be putting together a negotiating team to work with those groups in the coming weeks,” he added.
The Fianna Fail leader also stated that old-style politics are outdated and are in serious need of reform, he further explained: “The old-style adversarial, government-opposition politics will have to be significantly modified in the new configuration and the new composition in the Dáil. We’re serious about that.”