Kenny tells FG meeting he will ‘sort country’s rot’

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has pledged to put “back-to-back governments” together and “sort out the rot” in the country.

Speaking last night at the party’s first selection convention since the botched heave against him, Mr Kenny insisted that Fine Gael was moving on.

The convention nominated sitting TD Phil Hogan, Senator John Paul Phelan and Councillor Pat Deering to run for the party in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency in the next general election.

Mr Hogan is a Kenny loyalist who was regarded as a key factor in helping the leader survive last week’s attempted heave. By contrast, Mr Phelan supported Richard Bruton in his failed effort to oust Mr Kenny.

Mr Phelan told the convention, which took place in the Dolmen Hotel in Carlow, that, now that the leadership issue was settled, no one would fight harder or work longer than he for Mr Kenny and Fine Gael.

In response, Mr Kenny said he accepted Mr Phelan’s comments.

“We are going to put back-to-back governments together and sort out the rot and the corruption that’s been evident in this country in many places over the last number of years.”

Mr Hogan, for his part, admitted it had been a difficult week for Fine Gael, but said there was mutual respect among those on both sides of the debate, and the party was now moving on.

On a lighter note, meanwhile, Mr Kenny told how a masters student arrived to interview him this week after arranging the meeting a month ago.

“When she came to see me, I said: ‘Well, Rita, what is your thesis about?’

“And she said: ‘Management in a time of crisis.’

“And I said ‘Jesus, you should have been here last week and you wouldn’t have needed a thesis at all!’”