The Fianna Fáil leader says he wants to be Taoiseach - but has ruled out coalition with either Fine Gael or Sinn Féín.
Micheal Martin says the leader of any political party would want to lead their party into power after an election.
But he's left himself with few options for coalition - after ruling out a partnership with either of the two parties leading the opinion polls.
"We're not going into government with Fine Gael, and we're not going to go into government with Sinn Féin," Martin told reporters at his party's think-in, adding: "I can't be any clearer."
Asked about the prospect of a coalition with Labour, he said: "We're both looking at it through different prisms.
"We're a political party, just like any other political party. You can ask the other party leaders who they're going in with - it'd be just as relevant.
"My view is [that] we have, as a political party, historically and traditionally stood on the basis of our policy platform. That's what we're going to do."
But Tánaiste Joan Burton has played down the prospect of any partnership - saying Labour has spent too much of its time in power trying to correct Fianna Fáil's mistakes.
"Given that we've been dealing with Fianna Fáil's legacy - of the horrors that the country fell into in their last number of years in office - I'm not sure that we would be rushing to that position," she said at her own party's think-in in Roscommon.
