FINE GAEL and Labour have rejected as unworkable the Green Party initiative on a national consensus, on the basis that Taoiseach Brian Cowen does not believe cross-party agreement on the budgetary plan can be reached.
Both parties said last night it was clear the two Coalition parties did not agree on the issue, after Mr Cowen expressed doubt in the Dáil as to whether or not consensus was possible.
The Irish Times also understands that Mr Cowen has been privately unhappy since Friday at the manner in which the initiative was announced by Mr Gormley without prior consultation with him.
It also emerged yesterday that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was informed “in passing” on Wednesday last week by Green Minister Eamon Ryan of the move.
During the Dáil exchanges, which dominated Leaders’ Questions, Mr Cowen expressed scepticism about “an arrangement where bits of everyone’s proposal would be considered”.
He also said the Government had a responsibility to discharge its duties and to bring forward a four-year plan, as other governments in the EU were being asked to do.
Finance spokespeople from the three Opposition parties will get detailed briefings from the Department of Finance this week and early next week on the State’s economic situation and fiscal position. Mr Cowen said he would be amenable to a meeting afterwards to see if the parties could agree that their analysis of the economic situation was similar.
He said the matter could then be progressed on a “step-by-step” basis but would not commit himself to seeking a consensus on an all-party approach.
Fine Gael said last night that party leader Enda Kenny had made one final attempt in the Dáil to see if the Government was willing to work together on this issue.
“We wanted to get a final clarification on if this was a Government-backed initiative or Green Party initiative. What transpired in the Dáil proved that it was not [a Government-backed initiative],” said the party spokesman. Mr Kenny is likely to reply to the letter sent by Greens leader John Gormley to all Opposition leaders, but Fine Gael said it would now bring forward its own pre-budget submission on the basis of the briefing its finance spokesman Michael Noonan receives from the Department of Finance today.
Similarly, Labour said it seemed clear from the Dáil exchanges that Mr Cowen and Mr Gormley had been talking about “two different things” when talking about the process.
The party spokesman agreed, however, with Mr Cowen’s view that reaching consensus would have been very difficult. “There is consensus to reduce the deficit to 3 per cent of national income by 2014. It is quite legitimate to have differences on how it is to be achieved, and these are matters for political debate,” he said.
There has been some tension between the Coalition partners about the lead-up to the initiative and manner in which it was announced. According to the Green Party spokesman in Government there were contacts between the parties last week, notably between Mr Ryan and Mr Lenihan.
He said the Green Party decided to present it as its initiative because the party did not want it to be presented as “a crutch” for the Government.
However, it is understood that while Mr Lenihan was made aware of the initiative during a casual conversation with Mr Ryan, he did not know the junior Coalition party was to press ahead with it immediately without further talks within Government.
The Green Party also acknowledged that Mr Gormley had tried to reach Mr Cowen by telephone on Thursday but was not successful, and the Taoiseach was said to have been annoyed on learning of the move through the media on Friday morning.
Mr Gormley’s letter, setting out a process whereby consensus might be achieved, was received by party leaders yesterday and immediately rejected by Sinn Féin.