Irish centre-right parties close in on deal for new coalition government

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By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland’s two dominant centre-right political parties are close to finalising a coalition deal with independent lawmakers to return to power for another five-year term, two lawmakers said on Tuesday.

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, who were the largest members of the outgoing coalition, have been in talks since they fell just one seat short in a Nov. 29 election of the 87 needed to govern.

Some Irish media reported that a deal had been done between the two parties and independent lawmakers. But senior Fine Gael lawmaker Peter Burke told RTE radio that talks had not yet concluded, though a programme for government “should be published within the next 24 hours”.

One of the seven independents, Barry Heneghan, told Reuters that they had each finished talks with the two larger parties and would meet on Wednesday to decide whether to back a draft policy programme the sides have worked on.

“We have to meet as a regional group to go through everything with a fine tooth comb and see if we’re happy to put our names behind that,” Heneghan said.

The parties are hoping to sign off on the deal before next week’s inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, conscious that his pledges to slash corporate tax and impose tariffs pose a potentially major threat to Ireland’s foreign multinational-focused economy.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Gareth Jones)