Fine Gael supporters should continue their transfers to the Greens in the forthcoming general election, after first transferring votes to the Labour Party, the party's leader Enda Kenny said yesterday.
Denying that this represented an acknowledgement that Fine Gael/Labour may need the support of the Green Party if it is to make up the next government, he nevertheless reaffirmed that he would choose the Greens over the PDs after an election, were he to find himself in such a position.
This was in part because the Greens shared Fine Gael/Labour's aim of removing the current Government, he said.
Mr Kenny said his preference remained a two-party coalition with the Labour Party.
"The Greens themselves have already said openly that their objective is to change the Government. That's my objective too, but our alliance is with the Labour Party and I'm just saying it as a matter of voting logic," he said yesterday.
"When Fine Gael supporters have voted for Fine Gael candidates, when they've passed their preference on to the Labour candidates, subsequently they should move to voting for Green candidates, because they have also a common objective of changing the Government.
"It is an indication that its much easier to knock the Government out the more you have against them."
Mr Kenny was speaking after a seminar entitled Energy for the Future, organised by Fine Gael in Dublin yesterday. He said he had not discussed the issue of transfers to the Greens with either Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte or Green Party leader, Trevor Sargent.
In recent months there has been speculation in political circles that the Greens could opt for a coalition with Fianna Fáil if the two parties had enough seats to form a Government after the election. A number of Fianna Fáil Ministers have indicated they would be open to such a coalition.
"I can't speak for the Greens . . . their decision was that they would remain as a separate party going into the election, and I respect that absolutely," Mr Kenny said yesterday.
"I don't speak for them, but we've a lot of common ground covered in the Dáil in the last number of years. There used to be the perception of Green antagonism and complex difficulties about live exports of cattle . . . but I've read the Green party document on live exports and agriculture and Trevor Sargent himself dealt with this . . . so it's not an issue."
A spokesman for the Labour Party yesterday indicated that it may make a similar call for Labour supporters to continue their transfers to the Greens, after first passing them to Fine Gael candidates "fairly shortly", but said no decision on this had been made.
He added it was the party's expectation that many Labour supporters might well transfer votes to the Greens anyway.
Green Party TD Eamon Ryan, who attended yesterday's Fine Gael-organised event, said he welcomed any move to increase the number of transfers to the party. But he said the party "still needs people to vote Green number one if we want to steer the people of Ireland in a greener direction". His party had taken a policy decision not to enter any pre-election pact and would not be changing that position, he added.
At its party conference in 2005 the Greens rejected the advice of some of its senior TDs and declined to get involved in a pre-election pact with Fine Gael and Labour. However, Mr Sargent said later that he would not lead his party into any coalition with Fianna Fáil. But he did not rule out serving as a Minister in any such coalition.