Sir, – Pat Leahy says that Fianna Fáil is “adamant” that Paschal Donohoe must make way for Michael McGrath as Minister for Finance, a switch which was “agreed when the Government was formed” (Opinion & Analysis, September 17th).
This suggests that Fianna Fáil TDs need to read the programme for government which they so eagerly signed up to in 2020, since they would quickly find that no such agreement was made.
The office of Taoiseach is the only position which the parties agreed to rotate.
In relation to other Ministries, the programme says that next December Micheál Martin “will offer his resignation to the President and all parties and TDs supporting the Government will support the nomination of the leader of the Fine Gael party. Membership of Government and the roles of Ministers will be continued save where agreed in advance by party leaders.” On a plain reading this means that once the Taoiseach’s office rotates, the 13 remaining members of the Government, including the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, will retain their offices, unless otherwise agreed in advance by the three party leaders. Recent statements by Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar and Michael McGrath on this issue suggest either that they don’t understand what they signed up to in 2020, or that some other secret set of agreements was made behind the backs of the members of the three parties and that the programme for government isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
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It’s also difficult to take seriously the crocodile tears from Fine Gael in relation to the potential loss of the position of chair of the Eurogroup. Having agreed in 2020 that the office of Taoiseach is simply a bauble to be handed around in a game of political pass-the-parcel, are they really in any position to argue that the positions of Minister for Finance and chair of the Eurogroup are somehow sacrosanct? – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – Minister for Finance Paschal Donohue has built up influential and valuable contacts as president of the Eurogroup to the benefit of this country. But this national advantage seems to be of little value to our politicians who want to impose their self-serving ambitions.
Are we about to see political self-interest trumping national interest? – Yours, etc,
DERMOT CARTHY,
Dublin 3.