Kenny favours second term over Europe job

Enda Kenny has dismissed suggestions he may go to Europe to take up a chief post and instead stressed his desire to win a second term as Taoiseach.

During his last day at the economic summit at Davos, Switzerland, in an apparent reference to Ireland’s historic banking debt, he also suggested that Ireland was still in need of outside assistance. Mr Kenny also met yesterday with senior business and finance figures.

In an interview with Bloomberg, he said his aim is to become the first leader of his party to win two successive elections.

He said he wants to do this after clearing up an “unholy mess” in the economy he inherited from the Fianna Fáil-led government.

It has been speculated recently that Mr Kenny is being viewed as a possible successor to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso or European Union president Herman Van Rompuy, whose terms finish later this year.

However, Mr Kennyadmitted that Ireland’s debt was “still very high [and] therefore it makes us fragile”.

In a reference to the Coalition’s push to have Europe cover some of the cost of the bailout, he said the country was in need of “continued assistance”.

He added: “The mandate given to me was to take our country out of an unholy economic mess that we had inherited.

“That mandate was to sort out our public finances and get our country working.”