A FIANNA FÁIL backbench TD and former minister has said he does not believe a General Election is likely to be held until April or May of next year – a full four months after the January ballot first sought by the Green Party.

Frank Fahey, a former Minister for the Marine and Natural Resoures, told Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Adhmhaidin programme that delaying the election until April or May would be a suitable arrangement for both his own Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

If the election were not to happen until May, the ballot would be taking place a full four months after the late-January date first requested by the Green Party when it made clear its own intentions to withdraw from government.

His comments came while Tánaiste Mary Coughlan was telling the Dáil it was entirely up to the Taoiseach as to when the Dáil would be dissolved.

She was answering questions from Labour’s Eamon Gilmore who was asking when the government expected to publish the Finance Bill, which forms the second half of the legal basis for the Budget.

Cowen had previously said he had hope to have the Bill fully in place by mid-February; the election would be called, he had previously said, when the Budget had been fully enacted.

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