Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has rebuked Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney for his suggestion that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil could share power after the next election.

At the weekly Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting in Leinster House, Mr Coveney apologised for the remarks made in a interview published this week.

Sources at the meeting said Mr Coveney brought up the issue himself and apologised, but claimed his comments were taken out of context.

While Ms Fitzgerald did not single her Cabinet colleague out by name, she outlined Fine Gael's policy that Labour are the party's preferred Government partners. However, TDs said it was interpreted as a significant intervention by one prospective future Fine Gael leader against another.

“It is being seen as significant alright,” said one member of the parliamentary party. “Maybe Frances was carrying the message from Enda.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was not at the meeting because of his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mr Coveney was also criticised by Kildare TD Bernard Durkan, who made repeated noisy interventions, according to sources, while Ms Fitzgerald’s speech was described as “diplomatic”.

The weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party heard that Tánaiste Joan Burton has appointed Minister for Communications Alex White as director of elections for the same-sex marriage referendum.

Sources said there was irritation at the Labour meeting about Mr Coveney’s comments.

Ms Fitzgerald said it is not in Fine Gael’s interests to “rehabilitate” Fianna Fáil by promoting them as coalition partners. She said it make it more difficult for Fine Gael TDs to secure re-election.

Speaking in Cork last night, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly described Mr Coveney's comments as "not credible" and "ridiculous".

"I might add that Simon Coveney has not been elected yet and Ciaran Lynch--and dare I say his party colleague Jerry Buttimer--might have something to say about that down in Cork," Mr Kelly said, in reference to Mr Coveney's Labour and Fine Gael constituency colleagues in Cork South-Central.

“I think all this speculation is bordering on ridiculous - we are so long away from an election. It is not credible, because an awful lot will change in the next year and it is then that people will have to sit down and talk about the next government, not now”, Mr Kelly said.

He insisted that Labour was going to “plough on” and deliver on its commitments and he expected the current government to run until April, 2016.