Varadkar rules out early election saying deal with Martin will run as agreed

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin have said they want to see the current confidence and supply agreement between their two parties through to its conclusion.

The deal effectively comes to an end following the third budget of the arrangement underpinning the minority government; it will be introduced by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe this October.

Although some in Fianna Fáil privately believe Mr Varadkar could call an election before that point, the Taoiseach has firmly ruled this out.

“I intend to honour it for the full period as I have always said,” Mr Varadkar said of the confidence and supply deal. He further said that “talk of an extension and an election is premature”.

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Mr Varadkar has previously said he would like to begin talks on an extension before the next budget. Fine Gael sources had said Fianna Fáil could be approached before the summer, once the referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution has been held; or that talks on another deal could run in tandem with budget negotiations.

Numerous Fine Gael TDs have said the confidence and supply deal must not come to a sudden end after the budgetary process.

“There is a referendum next month, the summer economic statement and a busy and reforming legislative programme to focus on between now and summer,” Mr Varadkar told The Irish Times.

Barry Cowen, Fianna Fáil's spokesman on public expenditure, last week told The Irish Times the confidence and supply deal is unlikely to be renewed after the budget. While he also said the potential for any successor deal is a matter for both Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar, he said the confidence and supply arrangement struck in spring 2016 may have reached the end of its "natural lifetime". His view is widely shared in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.

Speaking to RTÉ’s The Week in Politics programme, Mr Martin said the commitment to a third budget included passing the finance and social welfare bills, which usually take a number of weeks after budget day.

End of 2018

He also said that he wants the agreement to be reviewed “at the end of 2018”.

“That’s what’s specifically written into the confidence and supply agreement and people should read that,” he said. “Obviously when we say we want a budget passed, that does mean a Finance Act and that does mean a Social Welfare Bill. Because you have to give effect to the measures in the budget.”

Mr Martin also rejected the suggestion that Fianna Fáil will not allow Mr Donohoe introduce a generous budget worth €3.2 billion or more in October, and said the political impact of budgets can be overstated.

“I don’t buy the line that budgets win elections,” he said, adding that the next budget must have an increased capital outlay to build social and affordable housing. Improvements in the health service are also important, he said.

“The next budget has to be a housing budget and it has to be a health budget. The capital budget has to be increased in terms of building more local authority housing.

“Last October during the Fine Gael ardfheis, the Taoiseach said we have a plan and it’s working. Now, two weeks ago, he said he’s frustrated about the fact that the plan is not working and he’s now declared it to be an emergency.

“If that’s the case the next budget has to be a housing budget and it has to be a health budget and we have to honestly deal with those two challenges above everything else.”