Sinn Féin leader and Louth TD Gerry Adams has claimed that his party will not go into power after the next election, unless it is the biggest party in a Coalition.
Deputy Adams has vowed that the party will not follow the lead of the Labour Party by serving as the junior partner in a coalition.
Mr Adams said that any discussions of potential coalitions can wait until after the general election scheduled next year.
Mr Adams also said that Sinn Féin’s role in Government would depend on a number of factors.
Adams said: “Whether we would have the strength to negotiate out a Programme for Government, which would be anti-austerity, which would be pro-United-Ireland, and which would be pro-public-services, so it’s in the hands of the people”.
Mr Adams went onto say: “The second part about who we’d be in with, or out with, the only thing I can say is we will not do what Labour did – we will not hitch ourselves as a minority party, if we had a mandate, to one of these bigger conservative parties.
“You’d just destroy what you’ve worked for.”