The groundbreaking coalition returns in Ireland – but challenges loom from the US

Well, that was a lot quicker than last time. After the February 2020 election, negotiations for a new Irish government dragged on until June.

Now, a mere 46 days after the last vote, the deal’s been done.

The groundbreaking coalition between the former bitter rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fail will return for another term, minus their junior partners the Greens who, in time-honoured coalition fashion, were obliterated at the polls.

They’ve been replaced by the Regional Independent Group, a collection of non-party TDs (MPs).

Micheal Martin will return as Taoiseach, as his Fianna Fail party won the most seats, while the current caretaker Taoiseach Simon Harris looks destined to become minister for foreign affairs.

The agreed Programme for Government has yet to be published (they’re usually tens of thousands of words long), but the two parties should ratify it at events on Sunday and Monday.

That will clear the way for the new government to be confirmed next Thursday, when the Dail (the lower house of the Irish parliament) returns.

With the electorate clearly choosing economic stability in the November election, the new government will have many of the old faces, dealing with many of the old problems, especially in housing and healthcare.

A new challenge comes from across the Atlantic.

One of the top priorities for Micheal Martin will come from the new Trump administration, which has already taken aim at Ireland’s lucrative hosting of huge US multinationals and threatened a broad range of tariffs on European exporters.

It will add a lot more gravity to March’s St Patrick’s festivities in Washington DC, when the Taoiseach sits down with the US president.

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Under proud Irish-American Joe Biden, it often felt like little more than a green-hued love-in.

In Trump’s White House, the stakes will feel higher.