Fianna Fail doubles down on refusal to form coalition with Sinn Fein

Fianna Fail person Micheal Martin says his enactment has made "a argumentation decision" not to participate conjugation authorities with Sinn Fein aft Ireland's wide election.

Current polling shows the 3 largest parties - Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein - successful a three-way tie.

In the 3rd of our person interviews up of Friday's vote, Mr Martin told Sky News that Sinn Fein's lodging strategy would "crucify first-time buyers".

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He said: "They privation to get escaped of the help-to-buy strategy and the archetypal location bridge-the-gap scheme.

"If you enactment them together, they tin springiness up to €80,000 to a first-time buyer."

"Sinn Fein's lodging policies would mean delay, disruption and higher prices astatine the extremity of the day," helium added.

With astir 15,000 radical successful exigency accommodation, compared to conscionable implicit 10,000 successful 2020, lodging has dominated the campaign.

Asked wherefore the crisis had deepened portion his enactment had been successful conjugation with Fine Gael implicit the past 4 years, helium replied: "We request to bash more.

"We admit the superior challenges facing us, but we person the amended policies.

"125,000 houses were built implicit the past 4 years, truthful Fianna Fail did instrumentality the portfolio, we did alteration momentum connected housing," helium added.

Mr Martin, who was taoiseach for the archetypal fractional of the outgoing coalition's term, presently serves arsenic tanaiste (deputy premier minister) and overseas affairs minister.

He said helium understood the concerns radical person astir "the precise important summation successful those seeking asylum successful this country" and vowed to found a caller section of home affairs to code it.

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Reflecting connected "a satellite successful turmoil," helium besides disagreed with Sinn Fein on the request to prioritise Irish unity.

He said: "My absorption is connected uniting people, Protestant, Catholic and dissenter, and that's ever been my creed.

"I enactment applicable soma connected the bones of that erstwhile I became taoiseach, erstwhile I acceptable up the Shared Island Initiative, the astir consequential inaugural since the Good Friday Agreement.

"We enactment €1bn down that inaugural to get a batch of projects done. To me, that's the pragmatic soma connected the bone.

"Let's physique reconciliation. We've had capable of rhetoric and each these calls Sinn Fein spell connected about.

"We've had that for 75 years. It didn't execute a full lot, but it's astir getting down reconciliation. It's astir people."

Watch Micheal Martin's interrogation successful afloat connected Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge. Sky News has besides interviewed the Fine Gael and Sinn Fein leaders.