Labour is the only large party that has not been categorically ruled out by Fianna Fáil as a possible coalition partner after the next election.

Party leader Micheál Martin ruled out seeking agreements with either Fine Gael or Sinn Féin at the conclusion of his party's two-day meeting of TDs and Senators in the Abbey Hotel in Roscommon.

“We are not going into government with Fine Gael and we are not going into government with Sinn Féin. I cannot say it any clearer than that.”

However, when repeatedly asked about his party’s attitude towards the Labour Party he would not be drawn on whether or not Fianna Fáil would be willing to treat with the party which is currently the junior partner in the Coalition.

“The public will decide after the next election. I don’t know where the Labour Party will be,” he said.

Asked how this squared with his desire to be taoiseach, given the necessity of parties forming coalitions, he said:

“It’s incumbent on the leader of any political party going into a general election to aspire to be the leader of the country and a taoiseach. That to me is a natural position to adopt.

“It’s also important in relation to the policies and ideas we want to see implemented in government. There is no point in developing policies for the sake of it.”

He said Fianna Fáil would stand on its own platform and not enter any pacts.

He argued that nobody had predicted Fianna Fáil would end up as the largest party in local government last May.

“I rest my case that I won’t be governed by opinion polls. I won’t be bounced into what happens after the next election by opinion polls,” he maintained.

The last day of the think-in was dominated by a presentation on gender quotas by Dr Yvonne Galligan of Queen’s University Belfast, who is also the chair of the party’s Markiewizc Commission, which has been asked to report on the best means of increasing the number of women candidates standing for Fianna Fáil.

Fianna Fáil has no woman TD at present and only two women in its wider parliamentary party. Mr Martin ascribed that to the meltdown the party faced in 2011 but said the party has taken positive steps to address it, a task made easier by the fact that the annihilation of 2011 had meant it had a green field site.

He accepted that notwithstanding that Fianna Fáil had the lowest percentage of female candidates among parties in the local elections but insisted that the party would put up strong women candidates who had a good chance of winning seats.

“Every women who goes forward will be going forward to win. We are not going to put forward women candidates for the sake of it,” he said.