Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has said he cannot envisage any circumstances in which he would serve in government with Fianna Fáil, and has reiterated his commitment to put both of the current Coalition parties out of office in the general election.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Rabbitte said yesterday that he had no intention of putting Fianna Fáil back into government after the election, but he refused to be drawn on what he would do if there was a hung Dáil.
Asked if there were any circumstances in which he would go into to government with Fianna Fáil, if Labour and Fine Gael did not have the numbers to form a government, he said: "I don't think it is reasonable to ask me to respond to a number of 'what ifs' after the election.
"I think all I can say about it is that I have no intention of putting Fianna Fáil back in government, none at all, and I really don't think it is reasonable to ask me to say more than that; that is my settled position. I have no intention of putting Fianna Fáil back in government and I don't know how many different ways one can say that."
His comments came in the wake of media speculation that his continued refusal to spell out what he might do if there was a hung Dáil indicated that he would be willing to go into government with Fianna Fáil in certain circumstances.
When pressed if he had changed his position since he ruled out serving with Fianna Fáil in advance of the last election in 2002, the Labour leader said the context was now different, but he added: "I have maintained a constant position on this issue. I can't envisage any circumstances where I would depart from that constant position."
Mr Rabbitte said Labour's electoral strategy had been settled at a party conference in Tralee, Co Kerry, two years ago when he had been mandated, by a majority of four to one, to negotiate the basis of an alternative government with other democratic Opposition parties.
"I have been doing precisely that with Fine Gael so that people will have a choice of government when the general election comes. What I have been trying to do behind the scenes, and in some documents published jointly with Fine Gael, is to work at the nuts and bolts of the policy changes we propose to make in that alternative government."
He maintained that Labour and Fine Gael had a realistic chance of winning the election and he pointed to a recent IMS opinion poll which, he said, indicated that the current Coalition did not have any prospect of forming the next government.
"I remain convinced that there is a mood out there for change. I think Labour and Fine Gael have still a task to convince the public that we represent that change," he said.
"I think the important thing is that the Irish people will have available to them a choice. They will have two competing blocs offering to form a government. Since I more than anybody else am the architect of that situation, I am completely bemused and amused that my conviction about it ought to be questioned.
"I am determined to see the Labour Party gain the maximum strength within that electoral strategy and that we will put forward a programme for change as a reforming government with Fine Gael," he added.
Any decision on coalition after the election would have to be endorsed by a special delegate conference of the Labour Party. A proposal for a deal with Fianna Fáil in the event of a hung Dáil would have to be approved by a conference on the basis of a recommendation from the party leader.
