FF and FG would be better off merging, never mind going into coalition together. Having monitored Irish politics for many years now, I am still unsure what the key differences between them are meant to be. I know that the actual differences are negligible. I think a merger of the two would actually be very healthy, and force the electorate to face up to some of their thinking, or lack of, on voting.
There seems to be something about junior coalition partners that leaves them destined to suffer. Possibly because their own supporters will always be disappointed in taking a back-seat to others, and presiding over another party's decisions which they view as unpopular. There was a movement within Labour that viewed going into Government as a mistake, and they may well be proved right. But who refuses power? That is not something a politician is going to do. A short spell as a minister is better than being right!
I have always voted Labour and for as long as I vote I probably always will, though my current leanings are towards abstention from the voting process. I vote Labour because I think Ireland badly needs a strong Social Democratic movement, which it has not had due to the FF/FG family based gombeen politics obsession. We are fairly remarkable in Europe for our lack of a large SD movement.
I also view ethical considerations as trumping political or economic considerations. As an Atheist I am precluded from being a judge, and I could never be President. I am pro-choice, pro-gay rights and generally socially liberal. FF/FG have no interest in any of those issues, they are a mix of conservatives and those who would rather hide from these issues and pretend they did not exist. I would like my son to go to a school where the patron was not the Catholic Church. FF/FG do not care about that. A large proportion of them think the Church has a place in schools. The others just don't care.
So, even though I am predisposed toward voting for Labour, even I feel a lot of disenchantment with them now. Bar Ruairi Quinn's efforts in Education, they have done little to be proud of. They have shown themselves to be equal to other parties in taking care of their friends with appointments etc. They are in many ways just as bland and self-serving as FF/FG, you get the feeling politics is just what has to be done to stay aboard the gravy train.
I saw the Labour core vote as consisting of "working class" people. I am not sure that is true at all, at least not in the conventional sense. I think Labour attracts a significant % of (lower) middle class voters who care about socio-ethical issues such as abortion, separation of church and state etc. These people are not seeing too much progress on these issues, and are the private sector among them are probably not too keen on the ties with and mouth-piecing for the Union element.
Incidentally, as a private sector higher earner I'd be far better served in a financial sense in voting FF/FG, but I have always found something especially repugnant in those parties, centred on how much of the membership is bound by a lack of a coherent belief in any type of politics bar holding power.