'No prospect in reality' of FF coalition - Rabbitte

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte this morning said there is "no prospect in reality" of Labour entering government with Fianna Fáil if Labour and Fine Gael did not have the numbers to form the next government.

Pat Rabbitte

In an interview on the Pat Kenny Show, Mr Rabbitte was asked: "Do you definitively rule out coalition between Labour and Fianna Fáil after the next election?"

He replied: "I am absolutely committed, not just to replacing the PDs, but replacing the PDs and Fianna Fail."

"Are you ruling it out?" asked Mr Kenny

"I am not going into the position of the what ifs. I don't believe the Irish people have any doubt about where I stand." However, Mr Rabbitte said he did not believe that a Fianna Fáil and Labour government "has any prospect in reality" after the next election.

"What I would say to you is that anybody who is sitting around expecting me to rescue Fianna Fáil and put them back into Government are in for one hell of a shock.

"But I am not going to be brow beaten, and I sincerely hope that the Irish Independent, isn't, or doesn't want to become, a player in this election telling me or anyone else what I should do. They did it in 1997. I hope they are not going to do it again, but they are free to do whatever they like. I am not going to be brow beaten," he said.

"My plan now is to ensure that Labour has the maximum number of seats so that Labour will have optimum amount of clout to bring in the programmes that we want to on the hospitals and childcare, on public transport, on antisocial behaviour, on crime prevention and so on."

He added: "There is no end to the number of what ifs. I can think of a half-a-dozen possible scenarios."

Mr Rabbitte's comments reiterate his stance in an interview with this morning's Irish Timesin which he said: "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."

Mr Rabbitte also said it was unlikely that "16 to 17 independents" would be returned to the next Dáil, saying that their vote would most likely be squeezed by the two larger groupings.

Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell reacted to Mr Rabbite's comments, saying that he believed 'what if' questions were reasonable.

"I believe that voters are entitled to have a sense of what the party they support would do under circumstances which are quite possible."

Mr McDowell said: ". . . it is now clear that the Labour Party is preparing the ground to repeat the con-job of 1992 - talking about the need for change and then entering into government with Fianna Fáil . . . Pat Rabbitte's unwillingness to categorically rule out going into government with Fianna Fáil after the next election is a clear signal that, while he wants to go in the front door to government with Enda [Kenny], he would like to keep the back door open - just in case."