Fianna Fáil minister backs Micheál Martin as TDs call for discussion on change of leadership
Micheál Martin at the Cork SFC final on Sunday. Picture Dan Linehan
Catherine Connolly's historic presidential victory has put pressure on Coalition leaders, with one Fianna Fáil TD suggesting Micheál Martin should be replaced "in the not too distant future".
On Saturday, Ms Connolly was elected the 10th president of Ireland on the back of 914,143 votes compared to Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys's 424,987 and Fianna Fáil's Jim Gavin — who suspended his campaign — with 103,568.
The 213,738 spoiled votes have led both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to suggest changes could be made to the nominations process for the office.
The result has seen varying degrees of pressure on Micheál Martin and Simon Harris from within their own parties, with Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness suggesting the party needs a new leader soon.
Mr McGuinness said steps must be taken to understand how Fianna Fáil stands on 17% in the latest state of the parties opinion poll.
"[We need] to identify exactly what happened. And that's easy to do because, right across the country, 62% of people voted for Catherine Connolly, [Heather] Humphreys was half of that, and then Jim Gavin was 7.6%.
"We made serious errors of judgment, and we have brought a big political party back to 17% from a time where we did enjoy, at some stages, 45% of the support of the general public. That needs to be addressed."
Asked if this meant that Mr Martin's leadership should be up for discussion, Mr McGuinness said it should.
"Of course it is, yes. We can't talk about the future or about what happened in the presidential election without discussing the type of leadership that brought us to that point."
Fianna Fáil sources on Sunday said they believe that while Mr McGuinness is "easy to write off" as a long-time adversary of the Taoiseach, his words "represent how a lot of people are feeling".
Dublin South-West TD John Lahart also said over the weekend that the party had to have a discussion about the judgment of the leadership, while Fianna Fáil senator Anne Rabbitte said she agreed with Mr McGuinness and Mr Lahart.
On Monday, transport minister Darragh O'Brien came to Mr Martin's defence, saying the “vast majority” of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party support the Taoiseach as party leader.
“If you look at the 14 years that Micheál Martin has led Fianna Fáil, he’s brought the party back literally from the brink, back to be the largest party in government: 48 TDs in the last election just less than a year ago, and he has shown great leadership over the course of that.”
Mr O’Brien said an internal review into the election was under way. He told RTÉ’s : “The last few weeks have certainly been difficult, unquestionably, for Fianna Fáil.
“Our parliamentary party actually met just over two weeks ago, and we had a full discussion with the party leader and amongst colleagues about what happened, and there was a lot of disappointment unquestionably.
“I was disappointed. The party leader was [as] well, and that review is under way, and we have to learn from that, and we will.
“But whilst we’re doing that, we also have to get on with the work that we’re elected to do for our people, and that is the singular focus that Micheál has as Taoiseach and as leader.”
Mr O’Brien said there was “real disappointment” but questions about leadership might be “looking at this too deeply”.
He said: “Learnings need to be made and will be made from that. But I think if you look back, to be fair to the party leader, over the last 14 years, he’s got all of the big calls right in that period of time.”
Mr Martin had come in for criticism on Saturday from within his own party after two spokespeople separately confirmed to the that the Taoiseach would not attend the declaration at Dublin Castle.
However, this decision was reversed, and he later confirmed he would travel from Cork, arriving to speak to RTÉ before the announcement.
Pressed about his plans, Mr Martin insisted that he had initially sought to make an appearance on RTÉ’s in Cork before travelling to Dublin Castle.
“First of all, I thought the count was later and I was asked to do the news. I thought I’d do it from Cork, but obviously the count was coming quicker. That’s all,” Mr Martin said.
Asked why his spokespeople had said he would not be in attendance, Mr Martin said: “Fair enough, but I’m here. I came and there was nobody who rang me about it.”
Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart also said there needed to be a conversation about leadership.
In an interview with Newstalk on Saturday, Mr Lahart said there was “huge affection” for Mr Martin, whom he said had stood by the party “when others left the scene in difficult times in 2011”.
He said: “But the party can’t afford the kind of error and errors that were made in the selection process here.” Mr Lahart said backbenchers took the proposal of Mr Gavin in “good faith”.
“A lot of this went on the trust in the judgment of what the leader was saying and recommending and this was a really significant error of judgment.”
For his part, Fine Gael sources said that Mr Harris's leadership is not under any threat. However, they that "hard questions need to be asked" about the party's campaign and how Ms Humphreys finished so far behind Ms Connolly.
According to the latest /Red C Poll, Fine Gael's support is 17%, down 2% when compared to when the Government was elected. Fianna Fáil’s support is down five points to 17%, while Sinn Féin's support is up four points since the election to 23%.
Mr Harris defended a Fine Gael video issued during the presidential campaign raising questions about Ms Connolly’s work as a barrister, saying that it “asked the questions many of you [in the media] were asking”.
Despite Ms Connolly's victory coming as a candidate of the combined left, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald confirmed there will be no combined candidate in the by-election to replace the new president.
- additional reporting from PA
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