The new leader of the Labour Party, Brendan Howlin, has warned that the current Government will not survive more than a few months.

Mr Howlin says the Fine Gael-led minority administration is “intrinsically unstable”.

Fine Gael has already been forced to pass a mortgage reform bill that it objected to.

The Fianna Fáil legislation was passed last week because they had a big enough majority to ensure the bill’s success.

Mr Howlin claimed that is a sign of underlying instability when he said: “This current arrangement may not survive months, and certainly not more than a year, in my judgement.

“It is intrinsically unstable, any significant issue that might be faced by it will knock it over, because it doesn’t have the capacity to command either the support of the country or the support of the Dáil.”