Negotiations on Government formations and policies are expected to be finalised by mid-January, according to a member of Fianna Fáil’s negotiation team.

Minister of State for International Law James Browne told The Anton Savage Show that there was no ‘hard deadline’ on these agreements, but he would expect things to come to a close soon after the new year.

“Look, it’ll always take as long as it needs, because I think if you rush this and you end up with a programme for Government that’s not thought out, it will only lead to instability,” he said.

“Having said that, everybody is really putting their shoulder to the wheel here to get this done as quickly as possible.

“Long hours are being put into this, and I believe we can have an agreement by the end of the second week of January, or certainly the third week of January.”

Third party accomodations

Minister Browne said that agreements between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael may have to change in order to accommodate a third party.

“That’s always the case in any coalition agreement,” he said.

“When you’re trying to put that programme for Government together, there will have to be an element of flexibility, because whoever supports the Government will obviously expect a certain amount of their policies or key issues addressed.”

Leinster House, Dail Eireann, Kildare St Dublin which houses the Irish National Parliament. Image: Alamy

According to Minister Browne, talks between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will focus on policy rather which party would have the bigger share of the Taoiseach seat.

“Win-win doesn’t mean everybody gets everything they want,” he said.

“That’s not possible in any agreement – but what it does mean is that people feel that they have been heard, that they have gotten what is considered to be a fair share of the policies that they want to be implemented.

“In fairness, any discussions I’ve had with Fine Gael to date have always been around policy issues and the key detail of policy issues.”

Mr Browne said that Fianna Fáil’s larger seat share ‘has to be’ reflected in policy agreements.

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