Taoiseach Brian Cowen has responded to the Green Party's decision to pull out of Government by stating that his immediate priority was to see the enactment of the Finance Bill.
The legislation gives effect to measures contained in the Budget.
Speaking to reporters in Portlaoise, he insisted he would not be seeking an immediate dissolution of the Dáil and would not be resigning as Taoiseach. He resigned as Fianna Fáil leader yesterday.
"It's important that we get the Finance Bill through, and we need a government to do that," he said, adding that Opposition spokespersons had been invited to talks with the Minister for Finance tomorrow to discuss the issues surrounding the passage of the Bill.
On Thursday, he announced that the general election would be held after the Bill was enacted and set March 11th as polling day.
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 Finance Bill by Friday.
Mr Cowen said this afternoon this timescale is unrealistic. "It's not possible to deal with it within a week."
He said he had to accept the decision the Greens had made to pull out of the Government. "I want to thank them for the work that they’ve done during the course of this administration," he said.
"The important thing now is to have an orderly completion of the Finance Bill in the interest of the country and then, obviously, we move to a dissolution of the Dáil and a general election."