Dublin - Ireland's 30th parliament began its inaugural
session Friday, with Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern due to
be re-elected for a third term before being sworn in by President
Mary McAleese.
Proceedings at the lower house or Dail in Dublin followed the
conclusion of a coalition deal late Wednesday between Ahern's Fianna
Fail (FF) party and Ireland's Green Party.
The Green Party voted to join a government coalition, approving
the deal with a large majority. Party leader Trevor Sargent stepped
down after the vote, choosing to abandon his post rather than enter a
FF government.
Two-thirds of the votes were required in order to accept a draft
deal hammered out between the FF and the Greens late Tuesday.
The FF won the largest number of seats in the May 24 election but
fell short of an overall majority. Ahern also approached five
independents to secure a bigger majority.
The six seats won by the Greens add to FF's 78 and the two
remaining seats that existing coalition partners the Progressive
Democrats (PDs) managed to hold on to after their vote collapsed to
give a slim majority in the 166-seat lower house or Dail.
The Green Party had expressed concerns about entering government
with the liberal free-marketeer PDs, and had aligned itself during
the election campaign with the opposition Fine Gael and Labour
parties in a so-called 'alliance for change.'
The results in the May 24 election were: FF 78 seats, Fine Gael
51, Labour 20, Greens six, independents five, Sinn Fein - the
political wing of the dormant Irish Republican Army (IRA) - four, and
the Progressive Democrats two.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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