Election – 11 March 2011

The General Election will take place on 11 March 2011. At 1.30pm, the Taoiseach told the Dail that the vacant Ministries (with Batt O Keefe’s Enterprise added into the mix this morning) are being reassigned to existing Ministers. There were rumours that a deal had been done with the Greens to allow the appointment of new Ministers for Health and Justice, but that appeared to have fallen by the wayside by the time the Dail resumed this afternoon.

It would have been better to have called a general election…but there is the small problem of the Finance Bill, and for the Greens, the Climate Change Action Bill, to be got through before the Dail rises. The Finance Bill is one thing; but there may yet be problems with the Climate Bill since Fianna Fail deputies look increasingly unlikely to support this legislation in the Dail.

Cowen made some strange remarks about the ‘conventions’ of coalition, suggesting that respective party leaders should have the right to nominate members of their parties to vacant cabinet positions.  Obviously the Greens would not allow the Taoiseach his right to nominate whomever he saw fit to fill the vacant posts, which has to be an incredible humiliation for him as Taoiseach. It’s difficult to see how this adminsitration can last out to early February.