Fianna Fáil Ministers expect the Greens to support the forthcoming budget and remain as stable partners in Government until the end of its term in 2012, in return for the deal the smaller party obtained in the negotiations for the renewed Programme for Government.
A senior Fianna Fáil source told The Irish Timeslast night: "I hope they realise they are in for the 2½ years; you're in and you stay in."
On Saturday, the Green Party decisively endorsed the Programme for Government and rejected a motion opposing the setting up of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) at its special convention at the RDS.
Some 84 per cent of more than 600 delegates backed the programme, agreed between Fianna Fáil and the Greens late on Friday night.
The motion opposing Nama was rejected by 69 per cent to 31 per cent.
Welcoming the decision, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he was confident the document was “a vibrant, pragmatic and comprehensive programme” and “a blueprint to meet the challenges we now face”.
“The Government partners have a good relationship based on trust, pragmatism and a shared desire to do what is best for the country in economic, social and environmental terms. This programme reflects this.”
Electoral reform and education spending feature prominently in the renewed programme.
An independent electoral commission is to be established, incorporating the functions of the Standards in Public Office Commission. Within 12 months it will “put in place the legal mechanisms to . . . facilitate a system where donations from private bodies, including businesses and corporations, can be made to a political fund which will be distributed to political parties in accordance with their electoral performance in the previous Dáil election”.
On higher education, the programme states: “This Government will not proceed with any new scheme of student contribution for third-level education.” It also promises “no further increase in the pupil-teacher ratio in primary and second-level schools for the lifetime of this Government and the provision of “500 teaching posts between primary and second levels over the next three years”.
A single rate of tax relief on private pension contributions and the abolition of the PRSI ceiling are among the main tax measures proposed.
It also confirms the carbon tax on fuel proposed by the Commission on Taxation will be introduced in the December budget.
A “site valuation tax” for non-agricultural land will be introduced to “provide a fair and stable basis for offsetting stamp duty on residential property”, the programme states.
There is also a proposal that tax relief on pensions be changed to a single rate of 30 per cent, which would mean that pensions would cost more for higher-paid workers and would be more attractive for lower-paid workers.
Under the existing system, workers who pay income tax at the higher rate of 41 per cent receive tax relief at this rate on their pension contributions. However, lower-income workers only receive tax relief on pension contributions at the 20 per cent rate.
Mr Gormley told the convention: “Very, very hard decisions have to be made. We are willing to make those decisions, but we do so in the context of a document which is transformational in nature, which is going to deal with the problems that beset this country for many decades.”
Fine Gael criticised the deal, with enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar saying it was "quite astonishing that Minister Gormley, when questioned on RTÉ's This Week, was unable to say how much the renegotiated Programme for Government is going to cost".