Regina Doherty backs Enda Kenny to stay in power due to Brexit

Government chief whip Regina Doherty has backed suggestions Taoiseach Enda Kenny could be set to remain in power for a number of years due to the Brexit fallout.

On Saturday, Mr Kenny said he has no plans to step down in the near future as Ireland needs “a clear head and a steady hand on the tiller” while the consequences of the UK vote are addressed.

Asked on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland programme yesterday about whether the situation is likely to cause further friction among TDs who want a change of leadership, Regina Doherty said that she supports Mr Kenny’s view he should remain in power as Ireland is “facing the most serious challenge to the Irish economy in the last 50 years”.

She said she would be happy for the Fine Gael leader to stay on for Brexit. “He said on Saturday he’s going to be around to see the Pope [during an expected visit in 2019] and hopefully I’ll be standing beside him.”

Meanwhile, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has claimed British prime minister Theresa May still does not have a coherent Brexit strategy four months after the vote to quit the EU.

Ms Sturgeon said a Brexit summit in Downing Street yesterday between the prime minister and devolved leaders had contained no new information, and left the government’s stance “no clearer”. She described the two-hour long talks as feisty.

Ms Sturgeon rounded on a warning from Number 10 that the devolved administrations must not try to undermine the UK’s negotiating position as “nonsense” as she said London did not actually have a firm grasp of what it wanted.

“To be brutally frank about it, you can’t undermine something that doesn’t exist, and from everything I have heard today in Downing Street there isn’t yet a UK government negotiating position,” she said, Martin McGuinness, the North’s deputy first minister, said there was a “joint responsibility” to manage the Brexit challenge. He warned against a hard border.