The draft programme for government will be published later on Wednesday as it was confirmed that Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae will take a junior minister post in the next government.
The Kerry TD refused to say which department he will be in, adding it is a matter for the incoming taoiseach.
Mr Healy-Rae, who will take up a position in government for the first time, also declined to say if he had secured any deals for his constituency but that the people of Kerry will see the benefits of having the Healy-Rae brothers in government.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, he said that after many years in opposition, he and his brother Danny want to work in government to better their home county of Kerry.
Asked which department he will be in, Mr Healy-Rae said: “At the end of the day, the giving-out of any positions, it’s obviously a matter for the incoming taoiseach, we will respect that role.
“It is fair to say that there is an arrangement in place where there will be a role at a department at a minister of state level for the Healy-Raes.
“It’s fair to say that that role will be going in my direction but as for what that’s going to be, that’s obviously for the direction of the incoming taoiseach.”
He also said he wants to see a “return of common sense” in government.
“What we would like most of all is that this government gets back to basics and gets back to the basic things that the people need, what the farmers need, what the tourism sector needs and all the different things that we’ve been highlighting,” he added.
“Whatever the issue is, we’re not slow to come out and we’ll be still doing that.
“We will try and make sure that common sense prevails, that’s the thing that is needed more so than anything else.”
He also praised his brother Danny for his negotiation skills over recent weeks.
“If President Trump is looking to get any able person to assist him in stopping the war in the Ukraine, he couldn’t carry a better person than Danny Healy-Rae with him,” he added.
“His negotiation skills over the last number of weeks are second to none.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has been working on the programme for government (Cillian Sherlock/PA)
“The work we have done, we are ensuring that government are taking on board the issues and the concerns that are County Kerry.
“Remember, if they are in County Kerry, they are reflected throughout the rest of the country.
“Those issues are taken on board at the heart of government. We are going to use our position, the two of us, in supporting the government and in supporting Kerry in what I would like to call a better and stronger way than what we might have been able to do in the past.”
The support of the Healy-Raes now brings the number of TDs backing the next government to 95 TDs.
A full draft programme for government is to be published later on Wednesday, following Fine Gael and Fianna Fail’s parliamentary party meetings.
The document took several weeks to compile following a lengthy negoitation process.
Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said every TD is equal as the new Irish coalition government is agreed.
Asked what the independents will get for supporting the new government, she said they will get to be participants in government.
“They’re going to have the opportunity to contribute through different ministries, to work in government departments on behalf of the people of Ireland,” she told RTE’s Morning Ireland.
“They’re going to have the opportunity to help shape policy, as they did over the last number of days and weeks, in relation to the programme for government, and they’re going to be there as part of the government to protect the state, protect the people of Ireland and implement the programme for government.”
Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said every TD is equal as the new Irish coalition government is agreed (Brian Lawless/PA)
She added: “Every single TD in the government parties has the same mandate to deliver for their constituents as TDs across the Dail do, but, specifically in the government, every TD is equal, there is no preferment, what is more important is delivery for the people of Ireland.”
Fianna Fail TD James Lawless described five weeks of “very intense, very rigorous engagement” in the lead-up to agreeing a coalition government involving four groups, saying it was “cordial but robust”.
He said the new government will have a “comfortable majority” of 95.
He told RTE’s Morning Ireland: “We’ve produced a programme for government which runs to some 200 pages, which I think captures the essence of what Ireland needs for the next five years to be a strong, successful, dynamic, modern nation, right across things like digitalisation, like sustainable energy, like investing in our health and education systems, housing, of course, and really steeling ourselves for the five years ahead, which could be uncertain, which could be turbulent both home and abroad.
“We have a comfortable majority and it’s really important that, when the government sets to work putting in place this programme, we’re not having to be constantly looking over our shoulder and firefighting in the Dail chamber.
“The ministers that are appointed, and that will ultimately be up to the taoiseach and the party leaders to decide on the 22nd, next week, but they can get into the departments and get on with the business of running the country.”
Independent Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin, who has secured a junior ministerial role, said they “negotiated intensely, for a long time, on national policies”, including carers, farmers and disability services.
“Our role was to ensure that the people who we met on the doorsteps, that their views were taken into consideration in any programme for government,” she said.
“The draft programme for government is available later today. It has to be finally signed off on by all of the parties and until that happens no-one can give any detail.”