Minister for Environment Alan Kelly has refused to confirm media reports that he intends to target Fine Gael second seats, in constituencies where Fine Gael have more then one TD.
Mr Kelly, who is the Labour Party director of elections, said: "Every Labour candidate in the country should be going to get votes from as many areas as possible" and he himself was targeting "every vote in Tipperary".
Media reports on Monday said the party was “actively trying to take out” weaker Fine Gael candidates in key constituencies.
But Mr Kelly said the party was targeting to get as many votes as possible.
“So in that sense we will ensure that all our candidates go out and fight for every vote - irrespective of what someone else’s previous voting allegiance was, we will fight for every single vote,” he said.
Mr Kelly said it was “very clear” that his party would ask people “when you have finished voting for Labour “ to continue preferences for the party’s Government colleagues,” .
He also said he expected his Government colleagues in Fine Gael “if prompted will ask for people to give the Labour Party their preferences, number twos and that is the way it should be, and that’s the way it will be”.
He said he would be targeting all opponents in his own constituency: "Whether you are Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, or Sinn Féin previously - I don't care what way they voted previously I would ask them to look at how much I have delivered in Tipperary and I would ask them to judge whether they want a minister at the Cabinet table after the next election and if they do they should vote for Alan Kelly."
He said it was clear at the party conference at the weekend that candidates were getting a warm welcome on the doorsteps and people were ready for the election and the “phoney war” was complete.
He said he believed an announcement about the date of the general election was imminent.
But he said he had no worry "whatsoever" about the experience of previous, smaller parties in coalitions, such as the Greens and the Progressive Democrats who lost heavily at subsequent elections .
“The Labour Party is the second largest party in the State. We are not a small party. We had 19 per cent of the vote in the last election. We had a third of this Government and we had at least 50 per cent of the influence in it,” he said.
“We are targeting to get as many votes as possible so in that sense we will ensure that all our candidates go out and fight for every vote irrespective of what someone else’s previous voting allegiance was, we will fight for every single vote.”
