Sinn Féin has begun talks with independent TDs about potentially forming a new government.

But the party has again ruled out any prospect of entering a coalition alongside Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil.

The party's deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, has said even if either party proposed a programme for government Sinn Féin could support, it couldn't believe that the programme would be implemented.

And she has said the public has now given a clear demand for water charges to be abolished permanently: “If Fianna Fáil think that they are going to cod anybody, that they are the party who initiated water charges, have suddenly come to some conversion in their views, they are not going to convince anyone of that and likewise Fine Gael.

“What has happened here, is that the people have spoken.”