Updated at 11:35

FINE GAEL LEADER Enda Kenny has refused to be drawn on whether recent spats between Fine Gael and Labour could lead to difficulties negotiating a government coalition between the two.

Meanwhile, the Labour leader said his party would be a stable coalition partner if it helps to form the new government.

The parties clashed lately on their education and tax proposals, with Fine Gael labelling Labour is a “high-tax” party.

Labour published ads attacking Fine Gael’s fiscal plan and claiming that its approach would see child benefit cut by €252 a year for families with two children.

The people’s decision

Kenny told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today that his party has not gone down the road of point scoring, but was instead focused on setting out its policies to the Irish people.

He said the people were “the masters here” and it would be down to them to decide what shape of government to elect.

He said he will wait until the people had made their choice on 10 o’clock on the 25 February before discussing the issue, and refused to “answer a hypothetical question in this way” :

I believe what Ireland needs now, really and truly given where we are, is a stable government with a strong and a clear mandate, and that’s contained in our five point plan.

Pushed further by the presenter to answer on whether it would be more difficult now to form a coalition with Labour, Kenny said he was concentrating on “the party that has the only clear plan here” and on selling Fine Gael’s five point plan.

Labour on coalition stability

Later this morning, Eamon Gilmore was asked by a caller to Pat Kenny’s radio show if his party would pull out of a coalition government with Fine Gael if they argue with them after taking office.

The Labour leader said that when Labour last left government in 1997, “the public finances were back in the black” and 1,000 new jobs a week were being created.

Gilmore said as far as he was concerned, “if the Labour Party makes and agrees a programme for government, we will see that programme for government through”.

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