Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has reiterated his belief that a General Election could be called next year in light of the current financial crisis.
Mr Kenny told RTE's ‘The Week in Politics’, that he could envisage becoming Taoiseach without an election taking place as happened in 1994 when John Bruton led a rainbow government.
He also called on the Government to recapitalise the banks because thousands of small businesses have had their overdrafts called in.
Speaking at the annual Fine Gael President's dinner in Dublin, Mr Kenny predicted that the next general election could be within the next 12 months given 'the way the Government is imploding'.
Mr Kenny told around 2,000 guests at the dinner that Fine Gael had been too long in opposition, and that it must aim to win the next election.
He said talk of a new Tallaght Strategy, under which Fine Gael supported the economic policy of a minority Fianna Fáil government in the 1980s, was irrelevant because the Government has a majority.
Earlier, Carlow-Kilkenny TD Phil Hogan said if Fianna Fáil wanted Fine Gael in Government he was sure Mr Kenny would be happy to help them - as long as he was taoiseach.
