THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS are on the verge of pulling out of government formation talks due to a belief that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are only willing to implement to “small tweaks” rather than “transformative change” to areas such as housing.

In a statement, the party said it wants major reform for it calls its “five deal breakers”, referring to housing, healthcare, disability services, climate and childcare.

Its deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan expanded on the statement this evening. He said that while the party has not formally withdrawn from negotiations, it was “not actively pursuing” further engagement with the other parties.

“Our assessment at this point is that there is a significant gap between us,” O’Callaghan told RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime.

He claimed that the approach being proposed by the main coalition parties of the last government “is more or less the same as the last five years”, with “small tweaks” on the tables for key areas instead of “transformative change”.

“We don’t have any sense from them that they wish to take on board the proposals that we were putting forward,” O’Callaghan said.

He said the party wants to see 50,000 homes built annually and are also firmly of the view that there needs to be a senior minister for disability to address critical issues in the sector.

Instead, O’Callaghan said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were only committing a ‘super junior ministry’ for disability – meaning someone who could sit at Cabinet with the 15 senior ministers but would not oversee a section of government.

The position also would not have a vote for high-level Cabinet meetings.

In the party’s statement, it claimed it was clear that the “direction of travel” in government formation talks was “very firmly” towards a deal with Independent TDs.

The Dáil is set to return on the 22 January and a nomination for Taoiseach is due to be put forward then.

All parties have to be willing to meet that deadline, sources told The Journal earlier, but this is less likely when it comes to the Independent Regional group because their members have varying constituency demands.

Talks with the Independents are due to resume this week.

However, negotiations are still progressing at a slow pace and there is lessening expectation that a government can be in place for January 22.