Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that progress is being made in the Coalition talks taking place.

But she has conceded that even if a minority government is formed, it may not last long: “It remains to be seen whether the Irish political system is capable and willing to do that.

“But it would certainly require a certain amount of change because it is different to what we have experienced before with majority Government.

“There will be a lot of changes involved and we have to see if the political system can deal with that otherwise we will be back to another election.”

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said they are likely to pull out of the talks - but could support the government from outside: “The Taoiseach asked us a question last night, it was a very frank discussion in terms of where everyone stood were it likely we would be able to go into Government and take up office.

“We said we did not think it was going to work for us on this occasion.”