Fine Gael will approach the Green Party to join a rainbow alliance if it and Labour win up to 80 seats in the general election, the party leader Enda Kenny has said. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
"I wouldn't object to them being part of [it]. I think they have some very fine public representatives in there," he said, adding that no attempt to set up a formal pre-election pact can be made.
"We get on very well with them, but it is not a case of trying to force some sort of pre-election pact because they are very clear in their own mind about their mandate," he said.
Insisting that the Progressive Democrats will "be completely irrelevant" to the formation of the next government, the Fine Gael leader said: "I believe that the PDs have had their time and wasted it.
"If a situation arose where Fine Gael/Labour had 79 or 80 seats and required a small number of extra votes to form a government, and the Green Party and the PDs had those number, my clear preference - while recognising the vote they took at their national conference - would be for the Green Party."
Delegates to the Green Party's annual conference in Kilkenny last March reaffirmed a decision not to make a pre-election pact with any party.
Most of the Green Party's policies on the environment, biofuel and the Kyoto treaty now "overlap" with those of Fine Gael, while issues that previously caused tensions between the parties, such as live animal exports, have receded, said Mr Kenny.
Meanwhile, a €150,000 Fine Gael billboard campaign attacking the Government's record on crime - which has already been criticised as "negative campaigning" by Fianna Fáil and the PDs - will be rolled out in the coming days.
The party will unveil significant elements of its general election manifesto at 10 major public meetings to be held from later this month, culminating in its ardfheis at the end of March.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Kenny also revealed that he is ready to add a third candidate to the party's ticket in Cork South West, alongside the already chosen Jim O'Keeffe and PJ Sheehan.
"Jim's around for a long time. Paddy Sheehan has been nominated and we will consider an addition in Cork South West. We will consider an addition to that ticket."
He said he knew that Fine Gael had "tapped into a real vein here into people's views about their children and about where we're headed as a country" during the controversy about a number of those jailed for having sex with minors.
Mr Kenny refused to discuss the claim by the party's Waterford TD, John Deasy, that he would have to step aside if the party failed to win power - a call that has deeply annoyed seemingly all of Mr Deasy's fellow TDs.