TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has insisted he will not share government with either Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin after the next general election.

In his strongest rejection yet of the idea of coalition with Fianna Fail, Mr Kenny said he could see no circumstance where the rival party should be given the opportunity to get back into the driving seat of government.

"I do not want to see this country handed back to those that wrecked it - not once but twice," he told RTE's 'This Week'.

Mr Kenny said Sinn Féin was nothing more than a protest party whose members did not want to be in government. He said he could give some consideration to the idea of Fine Gael, Labour and Independents combining after the next election, saying he had heard a number of "constructive suggestions" from Independents.

The Taoiseach insisted Fine Gael would be putting up a "strong fight" in the next election - which he expected would not take place until spring 2016. He said voters would see the current Coalition were the only parties with "a clarified agenda" to govern the country for the next three to five years.

Mr Kenny also confirmed that more tax cuts were on the way before spring 2016 and the Government wants to particularly focus on easing the tax burden for those between €30,000 and €70,000. He said the Government had already taken 420,000 low-paid workers out of the net for the Universal Social Charge.

The aim was to increase that to 500,000 or a quarter of the workforce.

Irish Independent