Pat Rabbitte has said he has no intention of resigning as Labour leader in the event of Labour and Fine Gael failing to secure enough seats to head up a rainbow coalition following next year's election.
Mr Rabbitte said his focus was to increase Labour's seat share and enter coalition with Fine Gael.
Speaking on TV3's The Political Party yesterday, the Labour leader said he had already made his views known on coalition with Fianna Fáil. Previously Mr Rabbitte has said he is personally opposed to coalition with Fianna Fáil. However, asked whether he would resign if Labour and Fianna Fáil emerged as the only viable coalition possibility next year, he said: "I've no intention of resigning the leadership".
"I'm interested in winning the maximum number of seats for the Labour Party between now and polling day . . . what happens after the election is another day's work, but I haven't changed my convictions about it."
His absolute focus was "on the combination of Labour and Fine Gael winning this election, Labour getting the optimum number of seats because the way Labour can be most effective and offer the change people want is by Labour winning more seats".
He said it was "inevitable" that the numbers would "add up for a Fianna Fáil/Labour government, just as it's inevitable that the numbers won't add up for a Fianna Fáil/PD government". However he believed Labour would "have most clout in a government with Fine Gael".
"I believe that Labour and Fine Gael worked extremely well in the '94-'97 government that laid the basis for the economic affluence that we see now."