Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said his party's objective in the election is to provide an alternative to a Fine Gael-led government.
Speaking at the launch of the Fianna Fáil election manifesto, he rejected the suggestion that there was no alternative to the current administration.
Mr Martin said he was not contemplating in any shape or form Fine Gael's Enda Kenny being in government after the election.
Fianna Fáil has promised to create 250,000 jobs and to eliminate the Universal Social Charge for workers up to €80,000.
Mr Martin said that, in government, his party would increase the old age pension by €30 a week and child benefit by €10 a month.
The party is also proposing to increase garda numbers to 15,000.
It promises to recruit 4,000 more nurses, bring in a six-hour waiting time limit in emergency departments, abolish prescription charges and bring in a first-time buyers grant.
Micheál Martin at the @fiannafailparty manifesto launch. Core message: a fairer approach for all. @rtenews pic.twitter.com/VhgIfhJ8Lm
— Paschal Sheehy (@PaschalSheehy) February 11, 2016
He said Fianna Fáil would provide an alternative to Irish Water and would suspend water charges for five years.
However, he said that the current charges were the law of the land and that Fianna Fáil would advise householders to pay their bills.
Describing Fianna Fáil as a party of the centre ground, he said the party had identified four core priorities that would benefit citizens at each stage of their lives.
They were jobs, cutting the cost of living, tackling crime, and securing home ownership and tackling homelessness.
FF policies independently costed, says Martin
He claimed the country cannot risk returning the present government with what he said was its short term, divisive and unfair approach.
Asked repeatedly about a possible Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government, Mr Martin said he is not getting into "hypotheticals".
Asked about polls indicating a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil combination as a possibility, he instanced the situation in Britain where the election debate had been skewed by faulty polls.
On repealing the Eighth Amendment, Mr Martin said he was open to examining the issue, and had already said his party would have a free vote if it came to it.
However, he said that the issue was a complex one that could not be addressed simply by slogans like "Repeal the 8th".
Mr Martin said his party's policies had been independently costed and evaluated by an economic consultancy.
He claimed that Fine Gael's promises exceeded the funds available and would undermine the tax base if delivered.
Asked about Fianna Fáil’s record, he insisted the party had learned its lessons from its role in the economic crash and acknowledged that it had narrowed the tax base and overspent.
But he said the banking inquiry had found that the blame for the crash should be shared.
