If you don't want me, I'll go
Recalling it was almost 27 years to the day since he was first elected a TD, Mr Ahern said if people thought he was a liability to the party he would go. His message was simple: I won't hang around if people don't want me.
At a three-and-a-half hour Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting, Mr Ahern said he was ready to lead the fight as he urged his TDs and senators to hold their nerve, as the Progressive Democrats intensified the divisions between the Government parties.
Delivering a lengthy speech to a packed meeting of TDs and senators, Mr Ahern recalled he was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the landslide election on June 16, 1977, when Jack Lynch's Fianna Fáil achieved 50.6% of the vote and won 84 out of 148 seats.
Mr Ahern invited his colleagues to speak openly or to him privately about their concerns.
In total, 30 members of the parliamentary party spoke at the meeting as a number criticised the PDs, including Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness and Sligo Senator Mark McSharry.
But Dun Laoghaire TD Barry Andrews said the party should be looking at itself rather than the PDs or Sinn Féin and Senator Mary O'Rourke said when she was in the Cabinet she managed to work with the PDs and there was problems.
But hitting back at the Fianna Fáil backbenchers who blamed the junior coalition partners for the disastrous mid-term elections, the PDs said both Government parties need to listen to the people and act swiftly on their concerns.
Accusing the dissenting backbenchers of being childish, PD Senator John Minihan said it was the same old faces delivering the same old line.
"It is a cheap shot from the usual line of suspects who run to the camera every time they get an opportunity," he said.
Earlier, Mr Ahern denied there were any differences in emphasis on policy between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. Despite Tánaiste Mary Harney's call for faster reforms, Mr Ahern said the Government will continue to take the necessary decisions.
Facing questions from jubilant opposition parties, Mr Ahern said the Government was aware there were difficulties and would look at matters like education and hospital waiting lists.
After watching his party surpass Fianna Fáil in an election for the first time in 70 years, winning five seats in the European Parliament, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the results were a devastating indictment of the Government which was out of touch and arrogant.
