Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan conceded tonight the timetable for the general election should be "accelerated", but insisted it should only be held after the Finance Bill is passed.
The Minister has invited representatives from the Greens and the other Opposition parties to talks at his department tomorrow to discuss a timetable for passing the Bill.
"I will explain the difficulties and I will see how they can address the difficulties," he told RTÉ's Six One News.
"I accept that we have to accelerate the timetable for the general election, there’s no question of trying to postpone the general election. But we do need to have a realistic timetable that would allow the Bill to be passed in an orderly way."
Mr Lenihan welcomed the fact the Greens and Fine Gael have accepted the importance of passing the Bill but accused Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore of "putting guns to heads already" on the issue. The Labour Party has said it will place a stay on a motion of no confidence tabled for Wednesday if the Government gives a commitment to pass the Bill by Friday.
"This is an issue of national importance. That’s what matters here," Mr Lenihan said. "We need to discuss this as politicians and we need to come to a conclusion that gives national leadership on this issue."
Mr Lenihan, one of four candidates to succeed Brian Cowen as Fianna Fáil leader, denied the Taosieach’s refusal to call an immediate election showed contempt for the electorate.
"There is cross-party agreement that the Finance Bill should be enacted. It would send a very wrong signal about Ireland and how handle our political business if we were to proceed to a general election without a Finance Bill," he said.
"Let’s stop the political posturing, let’s roll up the sleeves and do what has to be done for the country and then let’s get on with the general election."