Deal Reached To Form New Government

The leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens have signed off on a programme for government.

After marathon talks over the weekend the leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens met this morning to finalise a programme for government.

It's now been signed off on, with Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin confirming the news as he left government buildings.

He's expected to become the Taoiseach until 2022 - with Leo Varadkar to take over after him.

There's some significant wins for the Greens.

They include a 7 per cent annual reduction in carbon emissions, a two to one ratio of spending on public transport ahead of new road development, and a million euro a day to be spent on cycling and walking.

Eamon Ryan said he hopes it will be approved by his party.

The document has been sent to the parliamentary party ahead of the first meetings to debate it this evening.

It then has to go to the party memberships for an approval process likely to take two weeks