THE FIANNA Fáil-Green Party Coalition is likely to face an Opposition motion of no confidence at the start of the new Dáil term following indications from senior Government figures that the general election may not take place until March.
Pointing out that the Greens originally demanded the holding of an election in late January, Labour sources said a no-confidence motion would be tabled if the Dáil was not dissolved by that time.
Fine Gael sources said the party would consider all options if it became clear the Government was seeking to delay its departure from office unnecessarily.
However, a spokesman for the Greens said the party was committed to passing the Budget legislation and that a reasonable delay would not be a major problem, provided it was “a matter of weeks, not months”.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said in an end-of-year interview with The Irish Timesthis week that it could take until the end of February to complete the passage of the Finance Bill through the Dáil and Seanad.
This suggests that polling day would be in the second half of March, since a general election must be held between 18 and 25 days, excluding Sundays and public holidays, after the writ has been issued.
Green Party chairman Dan Boyle said he expected the Finance Bill to be published on or about January 20th and that it would take three or four weeks for the Oireachtas to process the legislation. The Dáil returns on January 12th and Mr Boyle said an election could not have been held until the middle of February at the earliest. He added that “it seems the latest an election could be is late March”.
Speaking before the Christmas recess, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said his party intended “to put the issue to the test in the House” if the Finance Bill were not passed within two weeks of the Dáil’s return.
A Labour source said yesterday: “It is clear from Eamon Gilmore’s comments that if, by the end of January the Government hasn’t enacted the Finance Bill and given a specific date for the election we will move a motion of no confidence.”
When the Greens made their declaration of intent to leave the Coalition last November, party leader John Gormley said: “We believe it is time to fix a date for a general election in the second half of January 2011.”
A spokesman for the party said yesterday: “We stated a preference for late January. We also made it clear that we were committed to passing . . . legislation to underpin the Budget and we made it clear that a reasonable delay need not be a major problem.”
Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that following their “comic opera” declaration of withdrawal, the Greens were now destroying their last shred of credibility.
Labour TD Seán Sherlock said the Greens had not fully thought through the consequences of what had been said by them. “They have apparently decided that getting what they regard as a number of significant Bills through the Dáil is more important than giving the Irish people the early election they want.”