Ahern vows to revive FF despite election disaster

A downcast Bertie Ahern tonight vowed to lead his Fianna Fáil party into the next general election despite the party suffering its worst defeat in almost a century.

Mr Ahern dismissed suggestions he would seek the post of President of the European Commission and said he would remain in national politics while admitting Sinn Féin had made gains at the expense of his party.

Former government ministers Gerard Collins and Jim McDaid were among the high-profile candidates to lose out as Fianna Fáil attained its lowest vote since the 1920s.

“I’ve lost over 20% of the council seats, a huge amount of my colleagues who work very hard,” a despondent Mr Ahern said.

“We lost this election, there’s no doubt about that, Sinn Féin won it.

“If you look at the votes in the local elections where it’s not so much about personality we lost 7% of the vote.”

Mr Ahern said he accepted some government policies had been unpopular and said he would consider how radical a reshuffle to make of his cabinet after the summer break.

Tánaiste Mary Harney, partner in the coalition government, said Sinn Fein’s success was bad for democracy in Ireland.

Mary Lou McDonald became the party’s first MEP to be elected in the Republic when she gained the fourth seat in Dublin, while her colleague Pearse Doherty has brought the fight for the final seat in the North West constituency down to the wire.

Sinn Féin doubled its share of the vote since the last European vote in 1999 when it polled 6.3%. Ms McDonald took around a 14.5% share of the Dublin vote.

Their candidate in Northern Ireland, Bairbre de Brun, also comfortably gained a seat after the first count in Belfast.

But Ms Harney said the growth of Sinn Féin support was not good for the country.

“Sinn Fein is not totally committed to the democratic political process,” she said.

“They are the only party on this island that has a private army. I think there’s now an onus on Sinn Féin as a result of their enhanced mandate to bring about an end to paramilitarism.

“That would be the greatest contribution of all that could be made to the development of the peace process”

Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell topped the poll in Dublin, while Fianna Fail’s Eoin Ryan came in second thanks to transfers from party colleague Royston Brady, whose vote collapsed.

Labour’s Proinsias De Rossa completed the capital’s European line-up.