Rabbitte: D-Day for coalition negotiations

Senior Labour negotiator Pat Rabbitte says that today is D-Day for the coalition talks between his party and Fine Gael.

Fellow negotiator Joan Burton suggested earlier that the talks would run into next week, saying that it is more important to reach a proper deal than meeting the deadline of Sunday's proposed conference for the membership to ratify any deal.

Fine Gael and Labour negotiators now seem adamant that a deal on a new coalition Government should be concluded this weekend.

"Today is D-Day in so much as the special Labour delegate conference is scheduled for Sunday afternoon and therefore if there’s going to be space to publish a programme I think we would have to finish tonight," said Rabbitte.

Fine Gael's Phil Hogan also emphasised the importance of agreeing a deal soon.

"Everybody wants to progress the work as quickly as possible with a view to giving us an opportunity to add any issues that have to be resolved by the party leaders dealt with well in advance of Wednesday," he said.