Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin this evening said he would be prepared to support a Fine Gael minority government after the general election.
Asked in a radio interview if he would be willing to support a minority government led by Enda Kenny he said, "Yes I would. I think that's in the interests of the people and of the country. The country and the people come first, and if the right policies are being pursued, I will support them."
"Irrespective of whether I am in government or out of government, I will support the basic policies that will get us through this crisis, and those are the kind of policies that are within the parameters of the four-year plan."
Questioned if he would vote for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, Mr Martin said he would do "what it takes," adding Fianna Fail would be putting forward its own nominee for the post.
On the subject of whether Fianna Fáil would join a Fine Gael government, the former minister told The Last Word radio show that both the main Opposition parties had rejected any partnership with his party, and that he would be working to maximise his party's vote, noting the electorate was "very volatile" at the moment.
He added: "We need to get away from tribal and partisan politics . . . and I'm going to approach it in that spirit. We will support the policies that are right for this country, and we will be quite radical to our approach in this."
Earlier today, Mr Martin condemned Fine Gael's plans for reforming the health service and defended his record as minister for health.
Speaking this morning he said he was "aghast" at the Fine Gael proposal "in terms of dismantling the national structure again and going back to independent republics for each individual hospital across the country".
"That's a recipe for poor quality, for poor outcomes and lack of standards."
Noting there were 55 agencies in the health service when he became minister, Mr Martin said: "I said enough is enough.
"Why did we go to a national system? I wanted better outcomes for patients in heart disease and cancer," he said. "I would argue with anyone that we have transformed the way we have dealt with heart disease in this country. There is no argument with that. We have also transformed cancer care in this country," Mr Martin told RTÉ radio.
He said best outcomes in treatment would not be achieved "if we're going to have a scattered system across the country . . . we don't either the personnel or critical mass to achieve that."
However, Mr Martin accepted it was wrong not to reduce the size of the health service, as everyone who had a job in the old system kept it following the restructuring. He said he would be "advocating for reform" within the service during the election campaign.
Commenting on the Opposition plans for universal health insurance, Mr Martin said he would like to see "detailed, credible" proposals from the parties. "Money following the patient is not the best option in terms of quality," the former minister said, adding the Health Information Quality Authority, which he set up, was the route to go in terms of setting healthcare standards.
Questioned why there was still not a network of primary care centres across the country, Mr Martin said these were now being developed, although he admitted there were delays, "largely due to resources constraints from the public sector side."
He said a number of partnerships with the private sector to provide these primary care centres had been set up, in addition to GP co-operatives across the State,
"No one has questioned the essential correctness of that approach, in terms of multidisciplinary, primary care centres across the country," he said. "There are challenges with big hospitals . . . but if you have a serious illness, the best place to be is an acute major hospital."
The Primary Care Strategy, which was originally published in 2001 when Mr Martin was minister for health, promised a "one-stop shop" where patients could access an expanded range of health services in the community.
Mr Martin also denied allegations that he was indecisive and gave credit to Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell for making that assertion. He also rejected claims he had been responsible for commissioning over 100 reports while in the health portfolio.
"Anyone who did something like the smoking ban, who stood up to the industries, is not indecisive. I was the first minister who looked at a system that was 30 years old and said 'I'm not going to trundle along with this system, that was the fragmented health board system."