Varadkar Set to be Replaced as Irish PM Under Coalition Plan

(Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s first grand coalition moved a step closer, as political leaders signed off on the final detail of a program for government.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and the Green’s Eamon Ryan agreed the plan for the next five years, and will now put it to the parties’ lawmakers and members in coming days and weeks. Details will be published today, Fine Gael said on Monday in Dublin, confirming leaders have signed off on the deal.

If passed, Fianna Fail leader Martin is set to become prime minister before handing over to Fine Gael’s leader halfway through the term, the party’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath said on Monday. The deal still faces hurdles, primarily winning support from Green party members. Two thirds need to back the agreement to allow the party to enter government.

Among the measures reportedly included in the program for government include:

• Increasing carbon tax
• Banning gas and oil exploration off Ireland
• Suspending building of fossil fuel infrastructure
• 7% reduction in annual emissions
• 50,000 new state-build homes, economic stimulus package

A grand coalition would effectively end a political divide that originates from Ireland’s civil war almost a century ago. The groups that became Fine Gael and Fianna Fail fought on opposite sides in that conflict, and the split has been the main divide in politics since.

Neither of the two parties has enough seats to command a parliamentary majority, which has pushed them into talks with the Greens, in order to shut out Sinn Fein from power. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail refuse to govern with Sinn Fein, which won the largest share of the vote in the February election, because of its left-wing politics and links to the IRA, which led a decades-long, armed campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland.

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