Acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he wants the Fine Gael negotiations with Independents to conclude before he contacts Fianna Fáil.

On Tuesday morning Mr Kenny opened the round table talks with 15 Independents and the Green Party.

He said he wants to agree a minority coalition deal before contacting Fianna Fáil leader Micheàl Martin.

This would allow him negotiating with Mr Martin from an “agreed position” with Independents and the Greens, sources said Mr Kenny told the meeting in Government Buildings.

Meanwhile, acting Minister of State Simon Harris said it was a matter for the Taoiseach when contact would be made with the Fianna Fáil leader.

However, Mr Harris said sufficient progress must be made first with the Independent TDs willing to support a Fine Gael minority government.

Speaking on his way into a meeting with 17 Independents the acting Minister said: “The Taoiseach has made it clear that at some point it will be necessary for whoever proposes to form a government to talk to the people on the opposition. It obviously makes sense that you would talk to the people who want to be in that government with you.”

Acting Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald denied the party was dragging its feet. She said this was a complex process with 17 Independents to be listened to but insisted Fine Gael was determined to conclude the process as soon as possible. “It is important we respect the vote of the people and that is what we are doing by engaging very seriously in a very genuine way with the Independents who have chosen to come in here today.”

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae said it was disgraceful the two main parties had not spoken yet. He said there was a fear Independent deputies were being used by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. “We do not like being used as leverage in that way.”

The meeting will focus on discussing mental health and rural affairs. However, the two sides will also discuss a working paper on housing which Fine Gael hope will form the basis for a Programme for Government.

Arrangement

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said it would be difficult to form a stable government without “some sort of arrangement” between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Mr Varadkar said the talks between Fine Gael, the Green Party and a number of Independents were going “reasonably well”.

“The soonest we can have government is when the Dáil meets on Wednesday 6th April. So we are dealing with some different topics today – housing this morning, rural development at the moment moving on to mental health and some other issues. There’s good engagement. There’s very good debates happening, very good talking. A lot of common ground, but it’s a very diverse group . . . involving two parties, Fine Gael and the Greens but also Independents of all hues – urban, rural, left, right and centre. So I don’t think it’s something that can be concluded quickly, but could potentially be concluded by next week.”

Mr Varadkar said there were eight themes in the talks and there could possibly be others added, with potentially 80 or 90 sub-themes involved.

Asked if it was inevitable that Fine Gael would have to contact Fianna Fáil, Mr Varadkar said: “I don’t think it’s inevitable, but I do think it will be difficult to form a stable government without some sort of arrangement between the two large parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

“The reason why we need a stable government, of course, is a government that is unstable or may collapse at any time isn’t really going to be able to deal with the problems that people face, whether it’s economic issues or social issues such as health and housing, for example.

“But at the moment, we are engaged in talks with people who actually want to be in government, Independents and the Greens and we’re going to see how far that can go.

“At a moment in time it will be up to the Taoiseach, of course, to decide when he thinks it’s appropriate to contact Fianna Fáil. But it makes sense initially to talk to those who actually may want to share power with us, and so far the only parties that have expressed a willingness to share power with Fine Gael are the Independents and the Greens.”

Mr Varadkar was speaking in Dublin at the launch of the Irish Kidney Association’s Organ Donor Awareness Week, which runs from April 2nd to 9th.

Responding to criticism from lung transplant recipient Gordon Ryan from Roscommon that a default ‘opt out’ system for organ donation had not been introduced during the lifetime of the government, Mr Varadkar said it was something he would like to see in the next programme for government.

The most important thing, however, was to increase the overall number of transplants. The numbers had increased in recent years due to the establishment of Organ Donation and Transplant Ireland.

As part of the new structure, an organ donor co-ordinator had also been put in place in every hospital group.

He said that much more important than any legislation was that people had “difficult conversations” with their families about what they wished to happen to their organs in the case of a tragic accident, for example.

Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, said the “vast majority” of members of the public in Ireland were willing to donate organs and the structures were in place to lift organ donation “to the next level”.

In Spain, the level of organ donation was twice Ireland’s, he said.