THE Labour leadership has reacted angrily to a newspaper report that the party is prepared to enter negotiations on the formation of a coalition with Fianna Fail if there is a hung Dail after Friday's election.
The Tanaiste yesterday described the suggestions as "mischievous and untrue", and a party spokesman said "there are no circumstances in which Labour will go into Government with Fianna Fail".
Mr Spring pointed to the two latest opinion polls which showed a majority of voters would not favour a Fianna Fail/Labour coalition. When asked in the latest Irish Times/MRBI poll on Saturday - which coalition they favoured, 52 per cent of those polled said such an arrangement would not be acceptable.
The latest Sunday Independent/ IMS poll, published yesterday showed that only 12 per cent favoured a Fianna Fail/Labour coalition from the range of options put to them.
Meanwhile, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, reiterated that the Progressive Democrats would be their partners in government.
He told RTE's This Week programme yesterday that he had spoken to his backbench TD Mr John Browne, about comments he issued that were critical of the Progressive Democrats and that he meant "no offence".
Mr Browne would accept the outcome of the election and "will be one of the strongest supporters" of a Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats government, he added.
Speaking in North Kerry, where he spent the weekend canvassing, Mr Spring said "there is no truth" in the report in the Sunday Business Post that a failure by the Rainbow parties to win enough seats to renew their Government would lead Labour to an alliance with Fianna Fail.
The report quoted "senior Labour sources" as saying they feared the three Coalition partners would not have enough seats to renew their majority.
The Labour party leader dismissed the "senior Labour sources", adding: "Whoever the source is, he or she is not one of the 50 most senior people in the Labour party."
Predicting the Rainbow Coalition could win a two or three seat majority, he refused to speculate on what would happen after the election, insisting he was thinking only as far as the count. The Tanaiste has so firmly tied his leadership to the issue of not forming a coalition with Fianna Fail that it is not seen in political circles as possible for him to remain as leader if such an alliance arose.
Confirming he will be party leader after the election, Mr Spring said he had been elected for a six year term in 1996. "That is the position and as long as I have the support of the parliamentary party in the first instance and the rank and file," he added.
Meanwhile, in Tralee later yesterday Mr Spring announced that Greyhound owners and breeders will become eligible for the same investment incentives now available to the bloodstock industry. The change in tax regime will "provide roll over relief on capital gains tax", the labour party leader said. Mr Spring was speaking at the opening of a new grandstand at the Kingdom Racing Track at Oakview Park.
The stand completed a "£2.5 million project which has given Kerry one of the best greyhound racing facilities in the country". The huge grandstand, complete with bar and dining facilities follows the creation of a new sanded racing circuit.
Mr Spring is partowner with a number of others of a greyhound called "Max Gang".
Government funding was used in the development of the track and the Cabinet intended that greyhound racing "should continue to be a major element in cementing the future of rural Ireland, building on its potential so that it continues to play a significant part in the life and business of our people".