Ahern counting cost of 'disastrous' poll showing

A senior cabinet minister today defended Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as he counted the cost of disastrous local election results.

One of Fianna Fáil’s worst-ever council contest performances raised new questions over the future of Mr Ahern, Taoiseach for the past seven years, but now a potential candidate for a top post in Europe.

With internal critics increasingly blaming him for the poor level of support, the Taoiseach has been linked to presidency of the European Commission – and has spoken to fellow EU leaders about the issue.

Today, Eamon O Cuiv, a leading cabinet colleague of Mr Ahern’s, conceded that the local authority polling outcome had been “particularly bad”, accepting: “We have to look at what happened. There are lessons to be learned.

“One would have expected as a government in mid-term to lose seats – but not on the scale that has happened. That is of major concern to us.

“We have to look at what we are doing to see why the public are not supporting us.”

The Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs minister said: “We have one of the most successful economies, but maybe the lesson out of this is that the economy is not everything, and that there are other issues now concerning the electorate. We have to look at those issues."

But Mr O Cuiv added: “I do not think that Berie Ahern as leader of the party was the issue. It is not just the leadership. There is too much focus on leadership. The Government had to look at why we are not inspiring confidence in people.”

As the long count of local votes continued today, Fianna Fáil were assessing a 9% drop in support since the last similar elections five years ago.

One of their most startling reverses was in Dublin, where more than half of the party’s city council seats were surrendered.

The main winners, Sinn Féin, were looking at a more than 7% increase in their backing throughout the country.

Both Fine Gael and Labour reported advances.

Meantime, recounts were going on in some areas.