Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail (FF) party remained engaged in lengthy and difficult negotiations Thursday with the Greens in a bid to hammer out a coalition agreement two weeks after Ireland's general elections, according to dpa. The talks were taking place under the pressure of a statement by Green party chairman John Gormley who had said that the two parties must reach a resolution by Thursday in what was described as a make- or-break negotiating session. It was the fifth day of coalition talks between the FF, which emerged from the May 24 elections as the largest party with 78 deputies elected to the 166-seat Dail, or lower house of parliament. The Greens won six seats, which would give an FF-Greens coalition a thin majority which would have prospects of being consolidated with the support of five independents who also won seats. Both the FF and Greens were maintaining strict secrecy about the substance of the talks and what issues they still needed to resolve. But reports in the Irish capital suggested that differences on such issues as health care and the energy sector were still holding a final agreement up. Asked about the "outstanding issues," Gormley only said the other side was respecting confidentiality and that he intended to do the same, RTE television channel reported earlier Thursday. RTE cited Fianna Fail sources as saying they expected a deal to be reached on Thursday. But this would still need to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Green Party convention on Sunday. The 30th Dail convenes on June 14 when Ahern is expected to start a historic third consecutive term in office, a record equalled by the first prime minister of Ireland, Eamon de Valera. The results in the May 24 election were: FF 78 seats, Fine Gael 51, Labour 20, Greens six, independent candidates five, Sinn Fein - the political wing of the dormant Irish Republican Army (IRA) - four, and the Progressive Democrats two.
