There was all sorts of political posturing last Friday night as the country was left with baited breath as to whether the Greens were in or out of Government.
But what went on behind the scenes was an entirely different story because when it was announced that a deal had been done – it hadn’t!
According to serial-blogger Ciaran Cuffe, all the Green negotiators were holed up on the third floor of Agriculture House on the evening in question.
They were counting down to the news and they knew an announcement was expected.
“It was a crucial moment, did we have a deal or not?” blogged Cuffe, who admitted that the crucial parts of the small print had not been signed off on.
“Like any agreement, there has to be trust and we went with the line that the deal was done in time for the 9pm news.”
But it seems that the line by line work went on until 10pm that night, so they took some leap of faith in their Government partners that the small details would be agreed.
And then came the task of printing out 20,000 pages by 10am for the Green Party convention the following morning.
“Copiers in Government Buildings and Leinster House were cranked up and someone from John Gormley’s office headed down to Reads and took over four copiers.”
“There was even someone sent out to Stillorgan to a copy shop. Never again,” Cuffe said.
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