Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That is a political agreement. The Deputy will have found that when one is trying to secure a majority on a county council or coming into a new Dáil and one has not had a chance to form a Government, political agreements are reached. These agreements are based on the programme for Government, on which basis the support of the Deputies is available to the Government. That has been the arrangement all of the time.

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