Fianna Fáil press conference:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Green Party leader Trevor Sargent are to meet this morning to finalise agreement on the shape of the next government after the party's negotiating teams signed off on a coalition deal after 10 days of tough talks.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan said Fianna Fáil "was satisfied" the agreement would form the basis of a sound and stable government and said it would be outlined to TDs at a meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party in Dublin today.
"The document is very comprehensive and contains a broad range of policy which the new government will get down to implementing straight away," Mr Brennan said after the negotiations concluded before 9pm at Government Buildings.
Asked if any assurances had been given to the Greens on the Taoiseach's personal finances, Noel Dempsey said: "They said tribunals are set up and they are quite satisfied to let them do the job they are paid to do."
Mr Brennan said the PDs had been "broadly kept aware and briefed" in recent days on policy and "they will receive a final copy of the document and they will be dealing with it overnight".
Neither Minister would say what issues had been agreed at the end of the day between the two parties, but Mr Dempsey said hospital co-location was raised.
"I am not going to say whether it is in or out" he said, confirming that it was discussed, "but not as often as the media thought."
Mr Brennan confirmed that there were some areas on which agreement was not reached which are not included in the Programme for Government.
"The document addresses areas on which we were most satisfied . . . but there were areas where both parties have not concluded some agreement and they wouldn't be contained in the document."
He added: "We are not going to discuss what's in the document. We owe it as a courtesy to our parliamentary party to show it to them first."
On the share-out of ministries in the new government, Mr Dempsey said: "We don't negotiate on that. Negotiators have to come to a conclusion on the programme. The issues of portfolios will be decided at leader level."
Mr Dempsey said at the outset of the process Green Party negotiators said they would not put a policy document to their members unless they were quite confident they could get it through.
"That is in the hands of the delegates but negotiators are happy they can bring this to convention."
Referring to the 10 days it took to agree the programme, Mr Brennan said to say there were problems over drafting would be an underestimate.
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said he had kept the Taoiseach informed throughout the talks, adding: "We are proposing a programe that will maintain a strong, dynamic and sustainable economy.
"We are trying to provide a broadly based coalition to provide stability for the country . . . we want the widest possible support of members of the Oireachtas."