The possibility of Sinn Féin having an influence in the next administration has grown after a series of opinion polls showing a rise in the party's support.
Questioned about accepting Sinn Féin's support in any fashion yesterday, Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan said: "The answer is no. Fianna Fáil couldn't run an administration if Sinn Féin were, in effect, the government from outside. That is my view."
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin also ruled out Sinn Féin's backing: "I think it would be equally unacceptable to do that, as to be in government.
"The [1997] government was dependent on support from Independent TDs of the Fianna Fáil gene pool, so it was possible to give stability to that," she said. "We are giving a very clear message: that Fianna Fáil will not go into government with Sinn Féin, or go into government dependent upon Sinn Féin."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said: "Again, I think we would go into opposition if that was put up. In my view, there are far better options to the Irish people." He added: "How often do we have to say it? It is off the agenda. There are plenty of other options. We have killed the myth that Fianna Fáil cannot run coalitions.
"Fianna Fáil will be very much in the shake-up. I think voters are beginning to make their choice, and it will be a Fianna Fáil-led government," he told The Irish Times.
Welcoming two positive weekend polls, Mr Brennan said Fianna Fáil was "very encouraged", saying it showed that voters now see the election has "consequences".
"More and more people understand that we have come a long distance and with a long distance to travel, but we should not change over," he said. Ms Hanafin said Fianna Fáil's core was "consolidating", and "those who were undecided up to now are saying that they are not buying" the alternative option.
Criticising Sinn Féin, Mr Ahern said he was "very suspicious" of its decision to "flipflop" and drop plans to increase Corporation Tax "once they were put under pressure".
"When you see that they want to go back nationalising some of our State companies at a cost of €5 billion, there really isn't any coming together of policy," he said.
The possibility of a Sinn Féin influence on the next government is likely to be seized upon in coming days by both Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats. Both may hope to target "soft" Fianna Fáil support, believing that it could be persuaded to vote for either of them to guarantee no role for Gerry Adams. Fianna Fáil's promise to raise weekly pension payments to €300 per week within five years is guaranteed, Mr Brennan said. "In 1997, we promised to raise pensions to at least £100 and we did that. In 2002, we promised to raise them to €200 and we did that. Now we are promising to raising them to at least €300 per week and we will do that. That is our pledge to pensioners," said Mr Brennan.
The average annual increase under Fianna Fáil has been €11 per week, compared with €3 per week under Fine Gael and Labour in the mid-1990s, he said. Pensions are a core issue for Fianna Fáil, he said: "Our priority and our choice is to look after pensioners. Even in bad times we put pensioners first."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny had not included pension rises as one of his key commitments in his "Contract for a Better Ireland". He had found space to include a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of government departments, Mr Brennan noted. "Carbon footprints are all very well, but what about the footprints of 400,000 older people in this country. Not one sentence, not even mentioned in the contract."
