FORMER TAOISEACH LEO Varadkar has said that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are “rapidly becoming sister parties” and another Dáil term of rotating Taoisigh is on the cards.

The two parties are not “vastly different”, he says, despite small policy disagreements.

Varadkar told RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Show that it is unlikely they would merge as they may end up as a larger party but with fewer seats.

“We’re together now nearly nine years, and I think there’s a very good chance after the next election that you can see another coalition led by Fine Gael and possibly another rotation.”

He said his party is “a bit more committed to European integration” and was quicker to support PESCO, a common security and defence initiative.

Fine Gael also “would be more enthusiastic about reducing income tax” than Fianna Fáil, and would “push home ownership more strongly than social housing”.

“But the differences are not huge,” Varadkar continued. He said, however, that he doesn’t see a merger happening “in the foreseeable future” due to the policy and “personality” differences.

“Sometimes when you add two parties together, what you get at the end of that is actually a bigger party that’s smaller, if that makes sense. We saw that before with Labour and the Democratic Left.”

Varadkar this week announced he will not stand in the next general election, after stepping down as Taoiseach and party leader earlier this year.

He said he doesn’t “know for sure” what his next move is, but he has had “a number of interesting offers” he just hasn’t be able to explore while serving as a TD for Dublin West.

“I don’t want to give any details or break any confidence,” he said.

“I don’t have anything lined up. I haven’t written a CV yet or done any interviews.”

Varadkar said there “may well be more” Fine Gael TDs who will not run again, but he doesn’t think it’ll be many.