Independent Alliance to abstain from Taoiseach vote

The Independent Alliance have confirmed they will abstain from a vote for a Taoiseach this afternoon as the group believes neither of the main parties have put forward radical enough measures.

Shane Ross this afternoon discredited the Fine Gael draft policy document given to 15 Independent TDs last night which he said does not reflect their views raised over two weeks of negotiations.

“We didn’t regard it as our document, we regarded it as a Fine Gael document which has been presented to us,” Mr Ross told RTE’s News at One programme.

“We basically would have liked to have seen far more radical measures in it and would liked to have seen those things that were omitted on political reform, those things that were omitted on rural Ireland, those things that were omitted on mortgage arrears and other details included.

“We will not be going into government with anybody, whether it’s Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael unless they actually put some really radical proposals down, what they have actually done here today is they have gone some way to acknowledge the problems and to meet them within the present system but they haven’t really bitten the radical bullet.”

He said Fianna Fáil had presented a “similar response” to their ideas.

“They haven’t presented as long a document as Fine Gael.

“Fianna Fáil who we negotiated with yesterday presented a series of much shorter documents in response to specific requirements.

“It was more specific, less general, less of a vision there but we are expecting more documents to come back from Fianna Fáil in the days ahead if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael met today,” Mr Ross said.