‘It will take time for people to return to FF’

Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath has admitted his party needs to restore its financial and economic credibility — and that it will take a long time for people to move on from the party’s legacy in Government.

“There is a whole generation of people in their 30s and 40s who are heavily indebted, who might be suffering negative equity, whose standards of living have fallen dramatically and who to a greater or lesser extent blame Fianna Fáil,” the Cork TD said.

Mr McGrath will not cast himself as the apologist for his predecessors’ role in the decline in the economy. In fact he even advocates a referendum, if necessary, to ensure the pensions of former ministers, as well as former bankers, are cut.