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FINE GAEL’S PARLIAMENTARY party has voted overwhelmingly in favour of ratifying the Programme for Government.
The party announced the news this afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.
Some 93.9% of members voted in favour of the document, while 6.1% voted against, according to the returning officer. Fine Gael have not released a further breakdown of the figures.
Returning Officer and Chair of the Fine Gael Executive Council, Annette Kent, confirms that the Parliamentary Party, Councillors and members have voted overwhelmingly for the Programme for Government.
— Fine Gael (@FineGael) January 20, 2025
This means that Fine Gael can now enter Government. pic.twitter.com/3DDqINxm6e
In a statement, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris welcomed the decision of Fine Gael members to re-enter government.
Harris said:
“Fine Gael has been engaging with members across the country over recent days outlining our commitment to deliver on the issues that matter to people.
“I am really pleased members have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Programme for Government.”
He said his party will enter government with an “absolute determination” to deliver support for small businesses, more homes and homeownership, and a radically different approach to disability services.
“We will always back farmers and rural Ireland. The Fine Gael team will now deliver that agenda in government,” he concluded.
As Fine Gael is the final member of the incoming government to ratify the document, the new government can now begin the process of nominating Micheál Martin as Taoiseach when the Dáil returns on Wednesday.
Yesterday, at a special Ard Fheis in Dublin City, Fianna Fáil members voted overwhelmingly in support of the document.
Fine Gael TDs and senators cast their vote on the document between 11am and 12pm today in Leinster House before the ballots were transported to Fine Gael’s HQ where counting will begin.
The ratification process within Fine Gael began in Dublin on Friday night, with the party holding five regional events across the country for its members.
The draft Programme for Government was published last week and sets out the ambitions and goals of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Regional Independents and the Healy Raes for the next five years.
Although the ratification process is largely seen as a box-ticking exercise within Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, there has been some disquiet among backbenchers in both parties.
Speaking off the record, a number of TDs have expressed unhappiness with what they see as large concessions made to the Independents in government.
The Independents have secured two super junior ministerial positions, three junior ministerial positions and Verona Murphy put in the Ceann Comhairle spot.
“Too much,” one Fine Gael TD told The Journal.
The other controversy that has arisen before the government even begins is a row over Dáil speaking time, with a number of Independent TDs, who were not giving a government ministry, seeking Dáil speaking time by forming an Opposition technical group.
Yesterday, Micheál Martin played down the issue, saying it is one the public are not concerned about – however, some of his backbenchers disagreed.
Martin was also asked again about Michael Lowry’s involvement in Government, with the Fianna Fáil leader defending it despite previously calling for his resignation.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris will likely face similar questions this week.
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So democracy in Ireland is now having the same party in power and opposition at the same time.
@james rowan: Independent TDs aren’t the same as Independent Ireland (the party)….. It’s literally in the title. So the same party are not in govt and in the opposition
Opposition should automatically be part of government. No elections needed!
@james rowan: I think you’ll find that the independents are not a party…
@smatrix mantra: I truly hope that the real opposition go to the courts to overturn this undemocratic scenario that has been thrust upon the electorate who have been fooled yet again by Fianna Fail.
I’d love it if the Gardai properly investigated Michael Lowry, because there is evidence out there proving he took a bung from Dobrien. It disgusts me that a crook has so much power over his peers in FF & FG.
@Steve McGarrett: That’s right they are FFG Proxies
@james rowan: Independents isn’t a political party. It’s literally in the name. They are independent TDs and not affiliated!….. So if the INDEPENDENT TDs aren’t part of a political party how are the same parties in govt and the opposition!?!?!?
@Frank Cauldhame: It is in the rules. They are rat cute and they won’t have made an error like that.
Fine Gael only came 3rd in the General Election
@Kevin O Brien: Cool. Thanks.
@Kevin O Brien: So what? SF came 2nd. The majority of voted ABSF so no government places for SF.
@Kevin O Brien: your point?
@Vincent Alexander: Complete claptrap.. by that logic the majority voted ABFF and ABFG .. or every other political party in the country. Mind your back ya auld codger.. you’ll do damage with all that contorting you’re doing.
@Kevin O Brien: And?
Get in extra vaseline and lube folks, cos the next 5 years are gonna be as painful for many as the last was, only this time with a severe chance of a recession hanging over the country head, only this time we cant tell people to leave cos they are a burden etc due to ya know the whole immigration for profit scam thats been happening. Gonna be fun to watch FFG and the independents trying to get along when things go wrong or off script
@Patrick Newell: never try and predict anything, especially the future. Know all.
@Patrick Newell: country doing fantastic. I was on a plane to Lanzarote, one of five yesterday, packed with old age pensioners and families off for a holiday, out last night, only accents you hear are Irish
@Dave f Doe: he also ran for president. Ha ha. How did that work out.
What drives me crazy is the people who say “ahhhhh why don’t you get out and vote if you want change”
What a load of bollox.
i did vote
Nothing has changed.
@reg morrisey: don’t vote again. It’s simple.
Every one of them including Fianna Fail & the Independents, are money grabbing parasites, only interested in what they can get from the public purse. Public Service in this country is no longer about serving the people and is more about feathering their own nests.
@The Firestarter: increasing their super inflated wages , appointing their friends and family members to the made up positions and posts to waste hard earned tax payers money without a single though of making peoples lifes easier.
Parasites is indeed a term you should describe them.
@The Firestarter: leave so if you actually believe your own BS
FFG with their combined pluracy telling the country that that they own the place and they always have. The reality is that they’ve built a Titanic and all they’ve done is left Cobh.
@Louis Jacob: *plurality even… lol.
Puke party
@N D K: sinn fein?
@Philip Kennedy: sinn fein never squandered our money or caused our youth to immigrate by the thousands because of the cost of them trying to begin there lives here, sinn fein never agreed to give an own door house to the world upon arrival here, plus a million more reasons I could give you, but you know yourself already
Knife found in kitchen drawer
Another week and more of this “Programme For Government” nonsense, our politicians and media love this “Programme For Government” thingy after every election as if it means something or for that matter implemented, another favourite word of theirs and the media is “Context” neither can compete a sentence without including it a least once or twice.
Dirty deeds and they’re done dirt cheap.
Oh great! But did the other side of their arse not already agree to that? More of the same…… chancers!
Good to see there will be stable Government for the next five years.
@Johnny Wilson: won’t last 6 months
@Johnny Wilson: FFG and the independents sticking it out for 5 years?? Ya ill take ur stable bet and say if this lasts 18 months before something big happens and the independents turn on FFG or vice versa id be shocked.
@Alan Moloney: another soothsayer.
So many here were doing cartwheels celebrating when the Greens lost, now they’re complaining bitterly that their favourite facist party aren’t in charge. Clear indication that the right think the only votes that count are theirs
@FoxyBoiiYT: Muh fascism… YAWN!
@Chop Chop: Yep. Fascists are truly tiresome.
Of course they did. Hardly going to turn down all the pay rises.
Well of course they were going to. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are identical parties with identical policies and they might as well merge at this point. It’s so annoying that no good options ever pop up for the Irish people in the general elections that are held and the cosmopolitan progressive establishment takes change once again for the next five years. I’m so disappointed in our country that we keep enabling the same failed tax and spend policies that continually fail and drive up our national debt every year.
have your say