Fine Gael will be setting no preconditions in coalition negotiations, including the possibility of sharing the position of Taoiseach, according to the party leader, Mr Michael Noonan. The issue of rotating the job of Taoiseach in a possible coalition arrangement was raised by the Labour Party at a meeting with Fine Gael before Christmas.
Both parties had agreed to meet to discuss more effective opposition, but discussions then came round to what might happen following the general election.
In a statement yesterday Mr Noonan said the precedent in all coalitions had been that the leader of the principal party became Taoiseach.
Fine Gael, he said, had no reason to believe there would be a departure from that precedent in the formation of the next government.
"Fine Gael, however, will set no precondition to any negotiations it may have with the Labour Party, the Greens or the PDs. It will consider each and every proposal which any of these parties may put in the course of negotiations and will not rule out proposals in advance of such negotiations," Mr Noonan said.
Fine Gael would, of course, be putting forward its own detailed proposals during the negotiations.
The meeting was attended on the Fine Gael side by Mr Sean Donlon, a special adviser to Mr Noonan, and the party chairman, Mr Phil Hogan. On the Labour side it was attended by the national organiser, Mr Pat Magner, and Mr Greg Sparks, an adviser to the leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn.
Mr Quinn and Mr Noonan had a discussion on the issues before the meeting.
A senior Labour source said yesterday that the two parties came together to discuss how they could make a more effective opposition and increase the pressure on the Government.
He said that while Labour wished to discuss tactics in the Dáil, including private members' time in the Dail, "Fine Gael wished to go further and wanted to discuss constituencies".
Labour was bound, he said, by the decision of its party conference that it would enter the general election campaign as an independent party, without agreeing any pre-electoral pacts.
"We did say that in any post-election situation there was no position in government to which the Labour Party needn't aspire to. They told us they were willing to talk about anything. Fine Gael has come to the conclusion that they should never rule anything out, that's their strategy," the source said.
Mr Noonan has said he believes both parties combined could win eight additional seats to give them an overall majority.
It is understood that when the Dáil returns both parties will continue these tactical discussions on "where we take it from here and how we start to hone the issues", the Labour source said.