FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore will meet again this morning to continue talks on the formation of a coalition government.
The two men met for more than an hour last night to discuss the broad shape of an agreement and were due to resume discussions early today.
It is expected that the parties’ negotiating teams will begin substantive talks on a programme for government later today. The party leaders met in the ministerial corridor at Leinster House, which was made available by Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
The Fine Gael team will be made up of Michael Noonan, Phil Hogan and Alan Shatter while the Labour team is Joan Burton, Brendan Howlin and Pat Rabbitte and Colm O’Reardon.
Neither party would make an official comment on the prospects of agreement, but Mr Howlin said last night that Labour’s talks with Fine Gael would be “profound and stark”.
Following last night’s meeting, Mr Gilmore briefed the 60-strong general council of the Labour Party on the talks.
The 36 new Labour TDs will gather in Dublin this afternoon. Even before three recounts are completed it is the largest number of Labour TDs ever returned at a general election. A party spokesman said the Labour priorities in the negotiations would be discussed at the meeting.
Several Labour TDs, including Joanna Tuffy and Seán Kenny, have said the party should play “hardball” in the negotiations to protect key party positions.
Preparations have also begun for a full delegate conference of the Labour Party to convene this weekend to discuss any agreement that might emerge from the talks.
Under the party constitution, the leadership must get the approval of a delegate conference representing the party organisation before it can enter a coalition government.
While the positions of the two parties are similar in a number of policy areas, there are major differences between them over key issues such as the reduction of public sector debt; the ratio between tax and cuts; water charges; property tax; indirect taxes and public sector reform.
Labour’s position is that the target of reducing public debt to 3 per cent of national income should be extended until 2016. It has also argued that public spending should be reduced by €7 billion and not by €9 billion between 2011 and 2014. It has also argued that there should be a 50:50 ratio between expenditure cuts and new taxes.
Fine Gael has set a tighter target for reducing the national debt to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2014 and wants a ratio of spending cuts to taxation of more than two to one.
Neither party has identified any of those positions as non-negotiable and TDs from both parties suggested privately yesterday that it was inevitable that both parties would find a compromise on these issues.
At the weekend, Mr Gilmore said he was confident that a programme for government could be negotiated.
Mr Howlin and Mr Rabbitte were involved in the coalition negotiations that led to the formation of a rainbow government in 1994.
As the two biggest parties began talks, a number of the newly-elected 17 Independent TDs made the first moves towards forming a technical group, which would qualify for speaking rights in the Dáil.
Dublin North Central TD Finian McGrath, who is beginning his third term in the Dáil, said he expected to meet fellow Independents Maureen O’Sullivan, Catherine Murphy, Mick Wallace, Thomas Pringle, John Halligan and Shane Ross this evening. He said that other Independents were likely to attend.
The United Left Alliance, which had five TDs elected at the weekend, said it was open to forming a technical group with any of the other Independents to secure speaking rights. A technical group allows TDs to have greater access to asking questions of the taoiseach, as well as priority questions and Private Members’ time.
Under current rules, there can only be one technical group, it must have at least seven members and it must comprise a majority of the Independents in the Dáil. This would suggest the group would need at least 10 members, unless current standing orders are changed.