Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has pledged that if the Government loses the forthcoming byelections he will not seek to form an alternative government from within the existing Dáil.

More from The Irish Times.

Makes sense. He probably couldn't form one anyway (FG-Labour-Greens-SF-Independents). A General Election would give both FG and Labour a boost.

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It is very easy to be a Socialist when one is poor.
That said, it is even easier to be a Socialist when one is rich.

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.56

Don't see the benifit to him of saying this.

would it not put more pressure on FF and GP and Indep if he hadn't said this ?

That may change after the by elections a week is a long time in politics

It's clever. Political anoraks like us know that the Dáil numbers don't really support a repeat of 1994 anyway, it would be an unstable mess of FG-Lab-Green-SF. And any election now will certainly result in numerous new FG seats. FG would want an election anyway, it could only strengthen them.

But the punters are hurting and want their chance for revenge, to give FF a good kicking. And here's Enda, offering to hold their coats while they put the boot in.

It'll play well with the section of the electorate who don't really pay much attention to politics.

Yeah, i thought it was odd too. Surely the best thing to do is not say it, and keep FF on their toes with the possibility of the greens crossing the aisle. I suppose he thought people want to hear "get them out" stuff at the moment more than anything.

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"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
John Galbraith
Economic Left/Right:-8.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian:-6.97

Definitely - another poor judgement call by Enda!

It pleases the punters and increases the sense of being under siege and living on borrowed time on the Government side. Locked in a pressure cooker with the grim reaper lurking just outside the door.

The weaker members of the herd will crack. FF backbenchers with strong local clientelist machines and not much connection to Ahern or Cowen will start abandoning the sinking ship and desperately trying to put as much distance between themselves and FF as possible. It'll only take 5 or 6 of them of them going AWOL to bring this farce to an end.

I repeatedly read this on p.ie but it never stands up. What benefit is there for a FF backbencher to force a GE? If there is an election any time soon, FF would be hurt severely in the number of TDs returned. Why exactly would an FF backbencher, knowing this would happen, put his own seat at risk, vote against the government? Surely it makes much more sense to ride it out and hope there is a decent recovery by 2012.

As for the thread itself, the same applies. If FG had the votes, it would make absolutely no sense for them not to force a general election and strengthen their position. Kenny is just saying the obvious.

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“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen” - Albert Einstein

Because some of the local pothole-fixer types would have a better chance of keeping their seats running as Independents rather than still attached to a badly-damaged and unpopular brand?

There's loads of them in the Dáil, in all parties, boyos you never read about in the media and who don't have any ministries or spokesman positions and who have no interest in getting them either - they are just there to get the goodies for their local voters (or at least, to be seen to be getting the goodies). Jackie Healy-Rae and Michael Lowry types. Most of them have little loyalty to whatever party they are nominally attached to, their only interest is in retaining their position as the big fish in their little local pond.

If running as an Indo is a better bet for holding the seat than running as FF then that's what they'll do.