Micheál Martin is the new Taoiseach

Micheál Martin will lead the new three party Irish governing coalition. RollingNews.ie photo.

By Irish Echo Staff

After members of three parties, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens, cast ballots on whether or not to go into coalition government together, it resulted in a majority in all three for such an arrangement.

And by prior agreement this led to a vote for a new taoiseach with, again, a prior agreement between the party leadership to put forward Micheál Martin as leader of the government for the next two and a half years.

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Martin was duly elected taoiseach by 93 votes to 63, with three abstentions, in a historic Dáil vote which took place in Dublin’s Convention Centre.


The new Taoiseach had the support of nine Independent TDs as well as his own party and his coalition partners Fine Gael and the Green Party.


Mr. Martin has pledged that “recovery and renewal” will be at the centre of the new government’s priorities, the Irish Times reported.


The new government marks an historic coming together of long time rivals Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. For much of the past century the two parties have faced off against one another largely on the basis of sides taken during Ireland's Civil War.

 

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