MR Joe Higgins, the Socialist Party candidate in Dublin West, has ruled out supporting either the Rainbow Coalition or a Fianna Fail/PD alliance if elected to a hung Dail.
Mr Higgins, who narrowly missed becoming a TD in last year's by election, said that since both groups were led by conservative parties, it would be up to them to ensure that a government was formed.
"Our party would not give any support to the illusion that one group was fundamentally more progressive than the other. It has been the bane of the left for decades in Irish politics to submerge itself in the right wing parties."
Addressing a press conference in Dublin to introduce his party's manifesto, he said: "Labour and Democratic Left have long since abdicated any responsibility to provide a radical economic or political alternative to the right and have submerged themselves in the trappings of office."
The party, has called for a legal minimum wage of £5 an hour, a 25 per cent standard PAYE rate, a progressive widening of the tax bands so that no worker on the average wage would pay tax above that rate, and an immediate increase in the PAYE allowance to £4,000 a year. It is also demanding a minimum social welfare payment of £100 a week for the unemployed, pensioners and those on sickness and disability, as well as an amnesty for all nonpayers of water charges.
The party is running four other candidates in Dublin: Mr Martin Walsh, Dublin South Central; Ms Clare Daly, Dublin North; Ms Lisa Maher, Dublin South; Mr Mick Murphy, Dublin South West.
