No 'plan B' if government document rejected, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael warn

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By Cate McCurry and Aine McMahon, PA

The leaders of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have warned there is "no Plan B" if the programme for government is voted down this week.

Micheal Martin said if the blueprint document is rejected, it will leave parties in "uncharted territory".

Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party have been balloting their respective members to back the document, which took some five weeks to put together.

The outcome of the membership votes among the three parties will be announced on Friday.

The Green Party has the highest threshold of the three parties to secure the approval of its membership. Two thirds of members registered to vote on the proposals must back the deal.

Mr Martin said the country is facing an "enormous challenge" in dealing with Covid-19.

Asked what will happen if the document is rejected, Mr Martin told RTE Morning Ireland: "I think we are in uncharted territory if that happens.

"An enormous amount of time has been put into the negotiations to get this programme for government.

"Therefore there is no magic Plan B if it's defeated.

"The negotiations is on all sides, and I'm not saying that in any hardline way, believe me this has taken quite a long time and has taken quite a lot of detailed discussion on all sides and involves compromises from all parties.

"I think we will be in a very difficult situation if it emerges that this does not get support from the members of any political party.

"We have had a lot of discussions with independent groupings, some of whom have indicated a desire that there would be a government formed and it would last five years."

Mr Martin said he is "very positive" the programme will be accepted.

He denied the programme failed to address the impact of a no-deal Brexit.

"The programme for government does provide for Brexit and obviously there are different scenarios that may emerge in terms of Brexit.

"We will have to respond like we responded in the last Dail to that, in terms of contingency planning," he added.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also warned there is no Plan B if the document is rejected this week.

"I know there are some people in my party who are counselling me and advising me to have a Plan B on the shelf, but I decided not to do that because we entered these coalition talks in good faith with Fianna Fail and the Greens," he told Newstalk FM.

"If it is defeated, we will have to sit down over the weekend and see what the options are."

Mr Varadkar said Fine Gael wanted to go into opposition and let Sinn Fein form a government, but it did not work out.

He said: "Sinn Fein, despite their protestations, never really tried.

"They didn't even come up with a framework document with the far-left.

"They voted for Mary Lou initially, but they couldn't even agree a common policy among themselves.

"Given the opposition on the left were so incapable of delivering on any of the promises they made, we felt that we should step back in and this was our best attempt and perhaps only attempt to form a government."

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