Bertie Ahern Will Love Going into Government with the Greens

Much rumour surrounds the feelings of the Taoiseach for Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent none of them suggest very amicable relations. Most are quite explicit that the Taoiseach doesn’t really like Trevor much. It is easy to see why, with releases like this from Trevor. Nasty oversight tendencies of the Green Party. (The Debate he references is here)

Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent TD today expressed surprise at the revelation that more than 400 appointments will be made by Ministers before the General Election.

Deputy Sargent said: “On 28 February, the Taoiseach told me that he did not approve of ‘packing’ State boards near the end of a Government’s term in office. He seemed to indicate that it would not happen this year. Despite this assurance, it seems now that he was misleading the Dáil. His Ministers are set to nominate and make 400 appointments to State bodies in the coming six weeks.

It looks highly plausible that the Green Party could hold the balance of power next Autumn and if there is likely to be tough relations between a putative FF/Green government something will have to give. Either that or the Taoiseach will simply accept opposition, though I doubt he dislikes Sargent that much. However it does raise the issue of how likely an FF/Green alliance is after an election and whether the party would give Trevor the heave-ho after the election to get into power.