Fine Gael minister rules out agreeing on election date with Fianna Fáil

He has said the Dáil can't lurch from week to week in the new year with no certainty over its future.

But Health Minister Simon Harris doesn't think agreeing an election date is a good idea:

"I think both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have shown responsibility over the last number of years. They have come together and in the national interest have said 'let's work together, let's ensure we have stable government' and I don't think we should now deviate from that.

"The Taoiseach will have to make that call at the appropriate time, I'm sure he'll engage with Deputy Martin on it but deciding that'this is the date and this must be the date' sounds terribly rigid to me considering we are living in a fluid world and government needs to respond to a range of issues.

However, Mr Martin had suggested that politicians should not return after Christmas unless the Taoiseach sets a definite date for the next general election.

Mr Martin said he was offering a orderly wind-down of the Dáil to avoid “tactics, manoeuvring, and opportunism” such as the recent no-confidence vote in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.

Responding to those claims this morning, Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has accused the Fianna Fáil leader of pushing for a general election date because “he has lost control and he doesn’t like it.”