The Gregory Deal-Was it ever implemented?

Snickers Man wrote: »

Just got to thinking about this having seen the last episode of Charlie, which mentioned the negotiations between Gregory (Elmo) and Charlie (John Boy) and also having seen Michael Healy-Rae on the Late Late whinging about why nobody criticised Gregory for putting the screws on the government for a casting vote but EVERYBODY slagged off his dad for doing the same.

As Haughey did the deal with Gregory in early 1982 to win the election for Taoiseach in March 1982, and his government then collapsed in early November of the same year sending him and Fianna Fail to the opposition benches for the next five years, did he ever get the opportunity to implement the deal for inner city Dublin?

Or was only a small part of it delivered?

To what extent would its implementation have been binding on the subsequent coalitiion Government?

I'm pretty sure only some of the deal was delivered. Haughey and Gregory made the deal in Feb 1982. However, the Haughey government was inherently unstable and there was another election in November 1982 that saw FG-Labour back in power. The Haughey government hadn't enough time to implement the deal. Given the nature of FF and Haughey whether they ever would have done so if they had lasted longer in power is of course questionable.

Gregory had been harshly criticised by FG for making the deal in the first place (parish pump politics, not in the national interest, etc., etc., blah, blah) as it had stopped them forming a new government. Therefore, they ignored much of the deal when they got into power.

There was a great biography of Tony Gregory released a few years back written by Robert Gilligan. It's well worth getting your hands on.