Irish parliament reconvenes as Ahern returns as prime minister

Jun 14, 2007, 16:23 GMT

Dublin - Ireland's 30th parliament began its inaugural session Friday, with Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Bertie Ahern due to be re-elected for a third term before being sworn in by President Mary McAleese.

Proceedings at the lower house or Dail in Dublin followed the conclusion of a coalition deal late Wednesday between Ahern's Fianna Fail (FF) party and Ireland's Green Party.

The Green Party voted to join a government coalition, approving the deal with a large majority. Party leader Trevor Sargent stepped down after the vote, choosing to abandon his post rather than enter a FF government.

Two-thirds of the votes were required in order to accept a draft deal hammered out between the FF and the Greens late Tuesday.

The FF won the largest number of seats in the May 24 election but fell short of an overall majority. Ahern also approached five independents to secure a bigger majority.

The six seats won by the Greens add to FF's 78 and the two remaining seats that existing coalition partners the Progressive Democrats (PDs) managed to hold on to after their vote collapsed to give a slim majority in the 166-seat lower house or Dail.

The Green Party had expressed concerns about entering government with the liberal free-marketeer PDs, and had aligned itself during the election campaign with the opposition Fine Gael and Labour parties in a so-called 'alliance for change.'

The results in the May 24 election were: FF 78 seats, Fine Gael 51, Labour 20, Greens six, independents five, Sinn Fein - the political wing of the dormant Irish Republican Army (IRA) - four, and the Progressive Democrats two.