Martin: I will lead FF into next election
He said he does not consider his constituency colleague in Cork South Central and finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, to be a threat to his position.
Responding to questions from listeners who phoned into the Sean O’Rourke show on RTÉ radio, Mr Martin defended his record as a minister in the previous administration. “I don’t have any plans to hand over the leadership to anybody. I will be leading the party into the local and European elections and will be leading the party into the next general election,” he said.
Eddie O’Mahony — a party supporter who phoned in from Cork, suggested Mr Martin should hand the top job to a younger TD who was not tainted by the legacy of the previous cabinet, like Mr McGrath.
“Obviously Michael will have his own ambitions, every politician does,” Mr Martin said. Asked if he felt threatened by him, he said: “No, absolutely not.”
Mr Martin said he will let the electorate know in advance of the next election his party’s preference to form a coalition with. But he would have a major problems going into Government with Sinn Féin.”
He said would be “very uncomfortable” with the Sinn Féin economic policies which “would have ensured a doubling of the deficit” if they had been implemented in the past few years.
He said he was not embarrassed by his predecessors but “certain leaders — in terms of scandals and funding” — created an “image for the party” which he is upset and annoyed about.
Mr Martin said the biggest mistake of the previous administration was reducing taxation too low, but claimed he himself “would never have been an advocate for the massive tax reductions that happened”.
The biggest fault of his predecessor, Bertie Ahern, was his “unquestioning faith” in the social partnership process of pay deals with public servants.
The Fianna Fáil leader said the bank guarantee — introduced five years ago yesterday when he was in cabinet — was “the least worst option at the time”.
If the guarantee was not offered, the situation could have been much worse.
“The view at the time was that there would be this famous ‘soft landing’ which never materialised,” he said, adding that he believed it.
“I regret that by the way and I believe that was a significant mistake.”
Mr Martin replaced Brian Cowen as Fianna Fáil leader in 2011— just before the party’s worst election result in history.
The anger directed at him on the doorsteps since then “has subsided and dissipated” he said, but people are more concerned about the future.
