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

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin says his party has made "a policy decision" not to enter coalition government with Sinn Fein after Ireland's general election.

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

In the third of our leader interviews ahead of Friday's vote, Mr Martin told Sky News that Sinn Fein's housing strategy would "crucify first-time buyers".

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He said: "They want to get rid of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home bridge-the-gap scheme.

"If you put them together, they can give up to €80,000 to a first-time buyer."

"Sinn Fein's housing policies would mean delay, disruption and higher prices at the end of the day," he added.

With nearly 15,000 people in emergency accommodation, compared to just over 10,000 in 2020, housing has dominated the campaign.

Asked why the crisis had deepened while his party had been in coalition with Fine Gael over the last four years, he replied: "We need to do more.

"We acknowledge the serious challenges facing us, but we have the better policies.

"125,000 houses were built over the last four years, so Fianna Fail did take the portfolio, we did change momentum on housing," he added.

Mr Martin, who was taoiseach for the first half of the outgoing coalition's term, currently serves as tanaiste (deputy prime minister) and foreign affairs minister.

He said he understood the concerns people have about "the very significant increase in those seeking asylum in this country" and vowed to establish a new department of domestic affairs to address it.

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Reflecting on "a world in turmoil," he also disagreed with Sinn Fein on the need to prioritise Irish unity.

He said: "My focus is on uniting people, Protestant, Catholic and dissenter, and that's always been my creed.

"I put practical flesh on the bones of that when I became taoiseach, when I set up the Shared Island Initiative, the most consequential initiative since the Good Friday Agreement.

"We put €1bn behind that initiative to get a lot of projects done. To me, that's the pragmatic flesh on the bone.

"Let's build reconciliation. We've had enough of rhetoric and all these calls Sinn Fein go on about.

"We've had that for 75 years. It didn't achieve a whole lot, but it's about getting behind reconciliation. It's about people."

Watch Micheal Martin's interview in full on Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge. Sky News has also interviewed the Fine Gael and Sinn Fein leaders.

(c) Sky News 2024: Fianna Fail doubles down on refusal to form coalition with Sinn Fein