Green Party councillors will vote for Fianna Fáil Seanad candidates as part of the coalition pact between the two parties, outgoing Green leader Trevor Sargent has said.
Following some disquiet among Green Party ranks, Mr Sargent said votes by the Greens' TDs and councillors would not be inspected to ensure that they support Fianna Fáil contenders.
Fianna Fáil is now more likely to ask the Green Party's electors to vote for Fianna Fáil candidates of their choice, rather than specifying those who should be supported.
"I don't think that there is any question other than that Green Party councillors are going to have their choice in who they vote for," said Mr Sargent, who is Minister of State for Agriculture and Food.
"They know they are going to be voting for Fianna Fáil because that is the arrangement in the coalition government all right, but there is no question of inspecting votes or anything like that."
Last week, Green Party headquarters sent an e-mail to party councillors telling them their ballot papers would be inspected by Green Party and Fianna Fáil officials before they were lodged.
"That was a mistaken understanding on the basis of an old rule which was unfortunately presented as the current situation but it is not the current situation," Mr Sargent said.
While there was never a formal rule that permitted such inspections there were occasions, particularly during Charles Haughey's time as Fianna Fáil leader, when Fianna Fáil votes were checked first.
Denying that party councillors had rebelled, Mr Sargent, speaking in Government Buildings, said: "To be quite honest, I don't think the councillors are at variance with the party at all."
However, he made clear to Green councillors that a vote for Fianna Fáil candidates is in the party's own interests, if it is to secure two of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's 11 Seanad nominations.
"The Fianna Fáil candidates are clearly the ones that the Green Party are going to be voting for given that there is an expectation that the Green Party will have two senators.
"So it is part of the coalition co-operation that that is going to happen. It is more important to be quite honest overall that the Government has a majority in the Upper House.
"For the workability of the Government, that is going to be required, and that is going to be required for Green Party policies to be implemented in government," said Mr Sargent.
Acknowledging that some councillors had been irritated by the edict from headquarters, he said: "We have come through a bruising election campaign and many councillors are understandably very sad that they are not in here, not in Leinster House, not in government as they had planned to be.
"I think the same is true for a lot of FF candidates and candidates of all parties, so I am absolutely understanding of the trauma of this particular period.
"Facing into a Seanad election is all part of that, but there is a lot more to it as well," he said, adding that the party's headquarters should have checked the rules more carefully before sending out the e-mail.
Meanwhile, Dr Mark Garavan, a Seanad candidate and a leading campaigner against Shell's plans to build a gas terminal at Rossport, Co Mayo has criticised the Green/Fianna Fáil Seanad pact.
"Mr Sargent has requested Green Party councillors to vote for Fianna Fáil party candidates in order that the Government can achieve a majority in the new Seanad.
"This, he says, is to ensure that Government legislation will achieve an easier passage through the Upper House. These comments reveal a limited understanding of the role and value of the Seanad. In my view, the role of the Seanad is to reflectively review legislation," he added.
