The Labour leader Brendan Howlin says he would be 'really anxious' to consider an alliance with the Greens on climate issues after Friday's local elections.

Ahead of this week's vote, speculation has begun on what the country's councils could look like.

The Irish Times reports that Fine Gael has instructed its councillors not to enter into any pacts with Sinn Féin on local authorities.

Speaking today, Labour leader Brendan Howlin was asked about whether his party is ruling out or considering deals with any parties.

He said the only talks he's had so far were with his Green Party counterpart Eamon Ryan.

He said: "We talked this morning in terms of perhaps a new civic alliance - that was a Ruairi Quinn idea in the past - where Greens and Labour would work together to look at climate change agenda at local level.

"I'd be really anxious to explore that with the Greens on councils across Ireland after this election."

Deputy Howlin added: "If we're going to change policy fundamentally... if we're going to look at green transport solutions... we'll need the cooperation of everybody, and we're certainly not going to shut the door to anyone talking to us."

The Labour leader's remarks come after Labour TD Sean Sherlock yesterday raised the prospect of the Social Democrats, the Greens and his own party merging to focus on climate action.

One often thinks that @labour @greenparty_ie and @SocDems should be uniting (merging?), leaving personal egos to one side, to create a radical future based on climate action and speaking to the future of work?

— Seán Sherlock TD (@seansherlocktd) May 21, 2019

The idea has, however, been roundly rejected by all three parties.

The Irish Examiner reports that Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy both quickly downplayed the idea, while Labour stressed Deputy Sherlock's tweet was a personal opinion.

Main image: Brendan Howlin in Dublin today. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie