FF parliamentary party meeting:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told Fianna Fáil TDs yesterday that the joint government programme agreed with the Green Party would provide for a sound and stable administration over the next five years.
Deputies who gathered for the first meeting of the parliamentary party since the election unanimously agreed that Mr Ahern would be the party's nominee for taoiseach when the new Dáil meets today and endorsed the coalition deal with the Greens.
Mr Ahern and two of the Fianna Fáil coalition deal negotiators, Brian Cowen and Noel Dempsey, took the TDs through the detail of the 90-page programme for government agreed between the two parties on Tuesday night.
Deputies were told during the 1½-hour meeting that the programme for government was essentially the Fianna Fáil election manifesto, a lot of which had been cut and pasted into the joint programme.
Mr Ahern said that Fianna Fáil had already been coming forward with policies on the environment, particularly climate change. He said that the party had published a White Paper on energy policy and he referred to his speech before the election at a Fianna Fáil youth conference in Galway in which he had outlined the need for an energy revolution.
Mr Ahern said he was satisfied after reading Green Party proposals given to Fianna Fáil before the start of coalition negotiations that there was a basis for discussions and for a stable and credible government for the next five years.
The joint government programme was "one that we can all be proud of and will provide a good government".
He said if they voted in favour of the deal, the Greens and the PDs would be part of the new government, with the Greens getting two full cabinet seats and the PDs one.
After his address, Donegal North East deputy Jim McDaid asked why the programme for government had not been circulated to Fianna Fáil TDs. He said Green Party members had been given copies a few hours beforehand at their meeting in the Mansion House.
Mr Cowen then handed a copy to all present.
Asked after the meeting about reservations over the Green deal expressed in recent days by some backbenchers, including Michael Finneran, Michael Moynihan and Johnny Brady, Mr Cowen said they had been articulating their views after being requested to do so by local media.
He said both negotiation teams debated all the issues comprehensively on the strength of their mandate and their convictions.
Mr Cowen said a programme for government "in the round" was at issue and it was a matter for the Green Party to decide to be part of a government so it could influence government affairs and proceed on the basis of sound policies negotiated.
"We have listened and learned on the basis of mutual respect, and we have outlined a programme that will reflect the democratic mandates that both parties have."
Mr Cowen said the programme would reflect the mix and political realities, with a mix of Fianna Fáil, the Greens and the PDs forming a government.
"The Taoiseach's objective is to form a broadly based, three-party government with the support of Independents, and we hope the deliberation of the Green Party will be a positive one."
Asked about a claim made by the Taoiseach at a Fianna Fáil rally on the Sunday before polling day that "every rainbow in the history of the State has been a disaster for the Irish people", Mr Cowen said: "He was thinking about non-Fianna Fáil rainbows."
He added: "We have here a very good policy platform building on the good experience of previous administrations and incorporating the perspective of the Green Party issues which are important."