Irish Labour Party rules out junior role in next coalition

Ireland's Labour Party on Thursday ruled out entering government as a junior partner to the country's two large centre-right parties, which will likely now move to secure a coalition deal with a group of mostly conservative independent lawmakers.

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, Ireland's dominant parties, began coalition talks last week and need one smaller party or a group of independents to make up a majority having fallen just two seats short of the 88 needed to govern at a Nov. 29 election.

Labour were seen as the more likely of two smaller centre-left parties to join them, having governed with both before. The similarly sized Social Democrats remain in exploratory talks but have set a high bar to entering government.

"The policy gap between our party and both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is such that it would not be possible to implement the policy priorities in our ambitious and radical state-led manifesto," Labour leader Ivana Bacik said in a statement following some initial talks.

"Therefore, the appropriate course of action is not to enter negotiations for government formation."

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, which have ruled out a deal with the other main party Sinn Fein, campaigned on a similar policy platform with the aim of returning to government together, meaning few issues are seen in talks between the two.

They helped elect one of the group of nine independents they are negotiating with as speaker of the lower house of parliament on Wednesday, increasing momentum towards completing a deal early in the new year.

Both parties have successfully governed with independent lawmakers before.