Fine Gael to publish all deals made with Independents

Fine Gael has agreed to publish all deals made with Independent TDs in return for their support for the government.

In the agreement made with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael pledged to "publish all agreements with Independent deputies and political parties in full".

It is understood during discussions that Fianna Fáil insisted acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny stood by his pre-election promise to make all arrangements public.

This could prove difficult as Fine Gael attempts to court a number of Independent TDs. The party needs an additional six to form a Government.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are to meet later this afternoon to put the final touches to the agreement.

It will then be brought to the parliamentary party meeting of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil this evening.

The deal states both parties will review the arrangement at the end of 2018. The document insists there will be no policy surprises from Fine Gael and any potential difficulties will be resolved by the two party leaders.

In return Fianna Fáil will commit to supporting Fine Gael in budgetary decisions. It will also abstain in the election of a taoiseach or government ministers.

The party has also agreed to vote against or abstain in a motion of confidence in any government minister.

Earlier Independent TDs expressed doubt that a government could be formed this week as talks recommence.

Speaking on his way into a meeting with Fine Gael , Independent Alliance TD Shane Ross said good progress was made in negotiations on Monday.

However he said there would be difficult conversations to be held on housing, homelessness and political cronyism on Tuesday .

Mr Ross said: “It will take longer than the optimists suggest because there are problems today.

“We are working as hard as possible at great speed but I think it will take some time.”

Independent Alliance colleague , Dublin Bay North TD Finian McGrath said he is willing to do a deal with Fine Gael but he is experiencing difficulties on the health front.

He said the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar understands the problems but has suggested the difficulties lie with finances.

Mr McGrath said: “I will be switching my focus over to Michael Noonan and the Taoiseach today.”

Yesterday significant progress was achieved in the area of banking reform and mortgage arrears. Ministers remain optimistic that a deal can be agreed in the coming days.

Meanwhile a leading member of the rural grouping of Independents Denis Naughten aid that the grouping would not delay or "take an a la carte approach." Fine Gael negotiators also met the five TDs of the looser "rural alliance" group yesterday evening to discuss a range of issues.

Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland the Roscommon-Galway Independent TD Denis Naughten said: “We are going to stick with this.”

He said the Independent TDs would not see the Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil document until both their parliamentary parties had signed off on it. A programme for government will then have to be drafted after talks between Fine Gael and the Independents, he added.

Discussions still needed to be held on many issues, said Mr Naughten. Rural Ireland, health, broadband, agriculture, justice, housing.

On the issue of broadband he said he was very disappointed that the Department of Communications had not flagged the difficulties of rolling out broadband when they met three weeks ago.

“We will have to see how fast they can roll out 4G broadband in the short term. Broadband is a vital issue.”

Another TD from the rural grouping, Independent Mattie McGrath, said there is no point in having a government if banks and vulture funds are not stopped.

“We need someone to put manners and respect on the banking institutions and the vulture funds. They are running amok – there’s no point in having a new government if that’s not stopped. People are just being treated miserably.”

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast the Tipperary TD said that the rural group of Independents still had a lot of work to go through in the government formation talks.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael document this evening. We will have to go through it in great detail when we get it.“

When asked about the possibility of Cabinet seats for members of the rural alliance he said “we need a programme for government before we think about positions.”