The Cabinet is meeting today for the first time since the general election almost a fortnight ago.
Does that mean that the new government has been formed?
No. This is a meeting of the outgoing Government. It will continue to meet – and to govern – until a successor is in place. There is no time limit on that.
But what happens on December 18th?
That’s the date that the new Dáil elected by voters on November 29th will meet – next Wednesday. When the new and re-elected TDs gather the first thing they do is to elect a ceann comhairle to chair the proceedings of the new Dáil. After that the new Dáil will order its own business under the chairmanship of the new ceann comhairle. Usually that’s followed by nominations for the new taoiseach. But not necessarily if the parties are not yet in agreement on a candidate and a programme for government – in other words, if a coalition deal hasn’t yet been done. That looks likely to be the position next week.
But don’t we need a government after December 18th?
We do, and we will have one. There is never not a government; the State must have an executive to lead it. So just as Ministers have continued in office after the Dáil was dissolved, the Constitution specifies that they remain in office until their successors are appointed. That will not happen until the new Dáil votes for a new taoiseach, and that in turn will not happen until a coalition deal has been agreed by parties that can muster a majority in the Dáil.
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What about TDs who have lost their seats?
It doesn’t matter. The last Dáil was dissolved by the President back on November 8th and the new Dáil will meet next week. But the Ministers have continued in office and they will continue to serve as Ministers until their successors take over. The executive – ie, the government – is constitutionally separate to the legislature.
Does that mean that the Green Party is still in Government?
It does. Even though they will not be Deputies in the next Dáil, Eamon Ryan, Catherine Martin and Roderic O’Gorman will remain Ministers of the Government. Stephen Donnelly is the Minister for Health even though he lost his seat in Wicklow. And Heather Humphreys is still Minister for Social Protection even though she did not seek re-election in last month’s election.
Now the convention is that the “caretaker” Government does not implement any new policies or embark on any new initiatives during this period; but that is just a convention, not a legal rule. During the period between the 2020 general election in February, and coming into office of the new government the Fine Gael minority “caretaker” government introduced the first Covid lockdown and billions of euro of exchequer funding for businesses and workers. The outgoing Government retains all the powers of its office though it will be accountable to the new Dáil in the conventional way once that body meets.
So when will we get a new government?
The short answer is we can get a new government when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have agreed, with either a third party or a group of Independent TDs, on a coalition deal that can command a majority in the Dáil. Until then we will have to make do with the old Government.
All that looks likely to be done in January rather than December. Government formation takes time; equally nobody looks to be in a huge hurry. They are still in the preliminary stages really. The sort-of-informal deadline that people are thinking about is the date of president Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.
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