Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement reached after five weeks of closed-door negotiations, current caretaker Taoiseach Harris will become deputy prime minister and is likely to succeed Martin as foreign secretary.
Harris will take back the chancellorship at the end of 2027, replicating the new arrangement which will see the Taoiseach position “swappled” between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael from 2020.
Crucial to the new deal is the commitment of seven independent conservative politicians to agree to support a five-year government program in return for cabinet seats.
Their inclusion means the new government will have a stable majority in the 174-seat Dáil Éireann, the main chamber of the House of Commons. Martin’s Fianna Fáil won 48 of Harris’s Fine Gael’s 38 seats in the November 29 election, just two short of a majority. With seven independent members, the government will have 93 votes.
Independents get two ‘super junior’ ministerial posts, which allow them to sit in cabinet meetings but prevent them from leading government departments.
Independents have already taken up one of the other top positions – chair of the Dáil – after Verona Murphy was elected last month, becoming the first woman to hold the neutral role.
Their inclusion in the next coalition, replacing the Greens, means the government is likely to move from center left to center right on some policy areas, particularly climate action. The Greens, the third part of the outgoing coalition, lost the election, losing 11 of 12 seats.
