Almost five months after the General Election held on 8 February, a historic coalition deal has been approved by the memberships of the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green parties to allow a new government to be formed and the election of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin TD as Taoiseach.

Under the terms of the coalition agreement, Micheál Martin TD will hold the position of Taoiseach until December 2022 before it passes back to Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar, and ministerial posts will be divided between the three parties with Fianna Fáil to hold six full Cabinet posts, as will Fine Gael, and the Greens will get three.

In respective ballots of the party memberships, Fine Gael backed the programme for government with 80% voting in favour of the deal, Fianna Fáil members approved with 74% of members voting in favour, and the Greens, whose rules required a two-thirds majority for approval, also voted yes with 76% voting in favour.

A full sitting of the Dáil Éireann was subsequently convened on Saturday 27 June for the election of the Taoiseach. The sitting was exceptionally held in the Convention Centre, Dublin, as the Parliament cannot sit in Leinster House due to the need for social distancing if all TDs are present.

Read the full article here.