Simon Coveney: Fine Gael leader will change before summer

The Housing Minister says he expects there will be a change in the leadership of Fine Gael before the summer, but it will not happen this month.

Simon Coveney believes Enda Kenny will put a process in place to replace him as leader of the party and Taoiseach.

However Minister Coveney says that's unlikely to happen in April.

"We are going to see a process put in place by the Taoiseach to facilitate a leadership change in the party," he said.

"That's not going to happen this side of the EU leaders meeting to finalise their mandate in terms of the Brexit negotiations and I think Enda has been very clear on that.

"People just need to be patient here. I expect there will be a leadership change before the summer but it's certainly not going to happen in the month of April."