Varadkar issues election date challenge to Fianna Fáil leader

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has challenged Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to force some of his TDs to support the Government in Dáil confidence motions if he wants an agreed general election date.

The leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have recently traded sharp words as they begin to oversee the end of the confidence and supply agreement, with many in Fine Gael believing Mr Varadkar is moving towards a February election.

The Taoiseach discussed the timing of an election with Ministers at a private meeting this week.

Some Ministers have speculated that the Taoiseach may even dissolve the Dáil before it returns after the Christmas recess on January 15th. Mr Varadkar, in the private exchanges, discussed various options but did not express a preference.

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He pointed out to his Ministers that two Fianna Fáil taoisigh – Bertie Ahern and Seán Lemass – had dissolved the Dáil while the House was not sitting.

Media briefings

Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin, who both held end-of-term media briefings on Friday, will meet in the New Year to discuss the end of the deal which sees Fianna Fáil abstain on budget and confidence votes to underpin the Fine Gael-led minority government.

Mr Varadkar said the Dáil arithmetic is tighter now than it was 3½ years ago when the agreement was first struck.

Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness has said he will vote against the Government in future.

Mr Martin views Easter as the natural end of the current Dáil and has called for an “orderly wind-down” of the Government.

Mr Varadkar rejects this and has said that, if Mr Martin wants an agreed election date, the pair should agree an “ambitious agenda” until April or May.

“I would need the assurance from Micheál Martin that he actually has the support of his party for this, and if he is going to have dissidents in his party that go against the whip, that he will be able to provide people who counterbalance perhaps that by voting with us on motions rather than abstaining,” Mr Varadkar said.

‘Attack dog’

Mr Martin claimed Mr Varadkar will run a “Boris Johnson-style campaign” with nasty “attack dog” tactics.

“That’s dirty politics, dirty-tricks stuff within the bowels of the Fine Gael press office. Let them at it but I’m not going down that route.

“We have seen negative tactics emerge,” he said. “They are going to go for Fianna Fáil front-bench people, they are going to go for me, that it’s going to be [an] ‘attack dog’ approach. That is what I mean by the nasty side of politics coming out.”

He accused Fine Gael of using this approach to deflect attention away from the controversies surrounding Dara Murphy and Verona Murphy.

Mr Varadkar said on Friday night he was “glad” Ms Murphy, who was criticised over her comments on migrants, had not won the Wexford byelection

In a statement later, Ms Murphy hit back at his comments. “It’s a sad day when the full might of the Fine Gael party has today sought to portray commonsense security issues raised by me as racism.

“It is this Fine Gael urban-centric government that are using the race card to detract from the fact that it is failing rural Ireland. All the name-calling and abuse hurled in my direction will not conceal this reality.”