Tánaiste Michael McDowell has ruled out Progressive Democrat support for a Fine Gael-Labour government after the election and said he would prefer a second election to backing such a coalition in a hung Dáil.
Mr McDowell also ruled out PD support for Fianna Fáil if Bertie Ahern was dependent on Sinn Féin to keep him in office, saying the PDs would neither participate in nor support such a government.
At the selection convention in his Dublin South East constituency last night, he said: "The last few weeks has seen growing evidence that the rainbow alternative based on the Mullingar accord, with or without the inclusion of the Green Party, is a failed political enterprise which does not command majority support among the voters.
"The attention of the people is increasingly concentrated on a far more likely scenario - namely, whether the next government will be a coalition between the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil or a coalition between the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil," he said.
"The Progressive Democrats regard Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael as parties whose broad ideological positions are compatible with that of the Progressive Democrats.
"The Labour Party, for its part, has repeatedly and consistently stated that its aim is to exclude the Progressive Democrats from Government. That is perhaps the lone proposition on which Labour has been consistent and clear."
The Tánaiste said Fine Gael had handcuffed itself to Labour. "Far from being consistent with the fundamental instincts of Fine Gael's traditional support base, the Mullingar accord and more recent overtures to the Greens demonstrate that the leadership of Fine Gael is more concerned with preserving itself against challenge by getting into office at all costs than in remaining true to what the party's support base stand for."
He said it was already clear that the promise made by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny 2½ years ago that Fine Gael and Labour would produce within 18 months a comprehensive joint programme for government had led to nothing.