Talks between SF and FG likely as Varadkar writes to McDonald

Talks between Sinn Féin and Fine Gael are likely after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he had written to Sinn Féin offering talks and its party leader Mary Lou McDonald said she had replied and wanted to speak to everyone.

Mr Varadkar reiterated his view that it was the responsibility of the opposition parties to form a government but said he was willing to speak to all parties, though he continued to insist that Fine Gael will not enter any government with Sinn Féin.

Speaking to journalists after the Cabinet meeting at Government Buildings, Mr Varadkar said: “A government can be formed by the opposition parties, whether it’s Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin coming together or a Fianna Fáil-led government or a Sinn Féin-led government without us.”

He said he did not have a mandate from his parliamentary party to get involved in talks on forming a government at this stage, something Mr Varadkar has not sought from his TDs.

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However, Mr Varadkar said Fine Gael is willing to talk to any party, and that has already happened with Fianna Fáil and the Greens. He said he had written to Sinn Féin last week offering to meet the party, but had received no reply yet.

Ms McDonald responded by saying she has a letter drafted to send to Mr Varadkar but events of the last 48 hours – which saw Ms McDonald’s children’s school close due to concerns over the coronavirus – caught her by surprise.

“I can assure the acting Taoiseach over the airwaves that letter is on its way to him,” she said on RTÉ’s Drivetime. She said she wants to ““speak to everyone” about how to bring about change in health and housing.

“I want to talk to everyone about those matters, including Leo Varadkar,” she said.

Unworthy of office

However she criticised the Taoiseach for a weekend newspaper article which accused Sinn Féin of not fully recognising the legitimacy of the State and for alleged financial irregularities.

She said the “nature of the tone of his public utterances in a Sunday newspaper” were “unworthy of the office of Taoiseach”.

She claimed his article was “most regrettable and needs to be corrected”.

Talks between the parties continued at Leinster House on Tuesday but they are likely to continue without any conclusion at least until Easter, Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall has said, following talks with Sinn Féin.

Asked how long the current round of talks could take, she told reporters the “the likelihood is that we’re talking about sometime around Easter”.

“I mean, it is early days yet,” she said, pointing to the 74 days it took to form a government in 2016, “so we are still in the early phases of that”.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what evolves,” she added.

Both women said the talks would continue on Thursday, while Social Democrats are due to have a full-day session with the Green Party on Wednesday.

Ms Shortall and Ms Murphy reiterated the party’s position that they would not enter government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, but would consider serving in government with one of the two parties and Sinn Féin.

Fine Gael is due to meet Fianna Fáil again tomorrow for an exchange on policy, but Mr Varadkar stressed that it would not be negotiations on a programme for government. He declined to speculate on the timeframe for government formation, but sources in all parties at Leinster House now expect that it will be Easter and probably beyond before the shape of the next administration begins to firm up.