Micheál Martin: We can't physically stop Bertie Ahern from canvassing

Ahern recorded saying he was 'worried' about the Africans' migrating to Ireland

Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaks to the media at the Fianna Fáil ard fheis in the Convention Centre, Dublin, on Friday evening. Picture: Cillian Sherlock/PA

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he cannot “physically stop” Bertie Ahern from canvassing in the Dublin Central by-election.

Earlier this week, Mr Ahern, the former taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, was videoed on a doorstep speaking to a constituent in Dublin Central, saying that he was “worried about the Africans” migrating to Ireland. 

He said while he was not worried about this generation of Muslims, he is worried about the next.

He later told the Irish Examiner that he accepts he should not have been specific about people’s ethnicities, after specifically referencing people from “the Congo”.

At the opening of the Fianna Fáil ard fheis in Dublin on Friday evening, Mr Martin restated that Mr Ahern’s comments are not representative of his party, but that Mr Ahern is free to keep canvassing.

“We're not stopping people from canvassing, but we are making it very clear to all our canvassers what the party position is and what is permissible and what is not permissible,” Mr Martin said.

“I’m not sure he is continuing to canvass. That’s a whole new horizon that we stop individual people.

“He didn't realise it was being recorded — that's no excuse, by the way.

“We can't physically stop people from canvassing, but we've given very clear guidelines to our canvassers in terms of the principles of the party. I've been out on canvas, and I haven't had those kinds of conversations, and I haven't heard anyone canvassing with me having those conversations at the doorstep.”

Two-day ard fheis

The Fianna Fáil faithful is gathering in Dublin for its two-day ard fheis in the Royal Dublin Convention Centre to mark its centenary year.

It is a voting ard fheis, where delegates elect the party’s ard comhairle (national executive).

Throughout the weekend, delegates will vote on 101 motions, including reform of inheritance tax for childless people, increasing tax and USC thresholds in line with inflation, and the modernisation of licensing laws to extend nightclub and late-bar opening hours.

Following the party’s disastrous performance in the 2025 presidential election, one Cork cumann has called for all elected public representatives and full voting members of the party to have a vote in the selection of future presidential candidates.

There will also be calls for Fianna Fáil to become a 32-county party and to contest elections in the six counties of the North. This, suggests the UCD Kevin Barry cumann, should be in place to contest the local elections in 2035.

The ard comhairle, meanwhile, has proposed a change to its voting system, with the party’s 'one member, one vote' policy to be extended to the selection of future party leaders.

A set number of votes will be assigned to each cumainn, with additional delegate voting rights allocated based on active membership levels.

Party members will also call for two out of every five ard fheiseanna to be held outside of Dublin. 

This is the second ard fheis in a row that will be held in the Royal Dublin Convention Centre, with the 2022 and 2017 events held in the RDS. The 2019 and 2016 ard fheiseanna  were held in the Citywest Hotel in west Dublin.