Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said Fine Gael need to face up to the reality that a minority government is now the most likely outcome.

Mr Martin rebuffed an overture by Minister for Health Leo Varadkar that Fine Gael are still open to partnership talks with Fianna Fáil.

Mr Martin said that Fine Gael should be willing to support a minority Fianna Fáil-led government if Fianna Fáil gets the support of more Independents next week just as Fianna Fáil would be willing to facilitate the creation of a Fine Gael-led minority government if Independents back Fine Gael.

“I think it’s time for people to knuckle down in terms of what’s likely to happen which is a minority government,” said Mr Martin when asked about Mr Varadkar’s comments that Fine Gael were still open to talking to Fianna Fáil about a partnership government.

“We were willing to engage and we are willing to facilitate a Fine Gael-led government and I think Fine Gael should be equally willing to facilitate a Fianna Fáil-led minority government depending obviously on the preferences of the Independents.”

Mr Martin said that Fianna Fáil had made it clear in its talks with Independents that it was willing to support a minority government for a period and that was the context in which he had agreed to meet acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny on Wednesday night.

“That [giving a commitment of support for a period] was the context of the talks on Wednesday night – it was meant to be about a pledge being given because Enda Kenny and Fine Gael met the Independents for three weeks and there was never any discussion about national governments.

“The basis of our meeting [with Mr Kenny] was meant to be about the underpinning of a minority government and in particular giving a degree of security to the Independents who said ‘Look if we jump one way or another what guarantees have we that after we give someone a preference’.”

Mr Martin said that he was well aware that neither the public nor TDs wanted another general election and he believed that it was still possible to elect a government without the need for another election once people were willing to be constructive and engage in discussion.

“Nobody in Dáil Éireann wants a general election, the public don’t want a general election so where there is a will, there is a way – it needs a bit of process [but] what happened during the week was an absence of process without any proper preparatory work or anything of that sort.”

Mr Martin said that Fianna Fáil would continue to engage with the Independents and would facilitate the formation of a minority government but he refused to be drawn on for how long Fianna Fáil would give a commitment to support a minority government.

Different positions

Asked if there was a fundamental contradiction between being unwilling to go into a coalition arrangement with Fine Gael and yet being willing to support a Fine Gael-led minority government, Mr Martin said that there was a substantial difference between the two positions.

“We, in Fianna Fáil have been consistent throughout all this – for months before the election campaign, all through the election campaign and since the election, we have said that we are not going into government with Fine Gael – we made that very clear.

“We made a very solemn promise to the people [about that] and there is an issue there in terms of making commitments and then casually abandoning them once the election is over and in terms of restoring trust in politics, we set a new benchmark in that regard.”

“We said we will not go into government with Fine Gael – we succeeded in that the outgoing government lost power and we have sought over the past six weeks to offer an alternative government and we are still seeking to do that.

“We have been talking to the Independents and they will determine who has the best chance of forming a minority government and we are prepared to facilitate that in order to give a country a government but there’s a very substantial difference between that and a coalition government.”