Enda Kenny releases statement on Fine Gael’s position on coalition with Sinn Féin

In a statement issued on Saturday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has reiterated his refusal to enter into a coalition government with Sinn Féin.

His words were as follows:

"The Fine Gael Party position is, has been and will remain, not to enter into coalition government with Sinn Féin. "As I have stated many times previously I don't believe the parties to be in anyway compatible, in particular on economic issues where Sinn Féin policy would lead to massive job losses and seriously undermine business and investment".

Speaking on Marian Finucane today, Kenny's Minister for Jobs Mary Mitchell O'Connor expressed the same view, though she more openly criticised Sinn Féin's history.

"Sinn Féin have a lot of questions to answer, politically, what they have done in the past... We couldn't work with them."

Mitchell O'Connor also expressed the view that she believes Sinn Féin's policies on finance to be "incoherent."