Dáil's youngest TD calls for 'clear the air' meeting with Micheál Martin after row

DÁIL Éireann’s youngest TD has confirmed that comments about his character attributed to Micheál Martin during a recent Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting did occur.

Cork East TD James O’Connor confirmed that the Tánaiste likened Mr O’Connor to a “Jekyll and Hyde” character whose mood changed from one day to the next.

Mr O’Connor is seeking a meeting to clear the air.

Mr Martin’s remarks had followed criticism by Mr O’Connor of Fianna Fáil’s consistently low showing in opinion polls, and a claim by Mr O’Connor that promises made to him by the Tánaiste had not been honoured.

The first-time TD had said he had come close to leaving the parliamentary party two years ago over what he described as a broken promise to include a bypass of Killeagh and Castlemartyr in the National Development Plan, and he said that despite pledges to resolve the dispute, nothing had been done since.

Mr O’Connor added that he had brought Mr Martin to Youghal six months ago and, he said, pledges made then by the Tánaiste were not followed through.

According to a media report, Mr Martin then likened Mr O’Connor to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, accusing the Cork East TD of one day praising him and the next “having a go” at him “over something you only recently brought to my attention”.

In an interview with The Echo, Mr O’Connor said that now the exchange was in the public domain, he could confirm it had occurred, adding that he thought “name-calling” was inappropriate behaviour for a former head of government.

“I don’t think the Jekyll and Hyde remark was appropriate,” Mr O’Connor said.

He added that he had asked to meet with the Tánaiste and, when or if that happened, he intended to “put out the hand” and attempt to make peace.

The 25-year-old said he had got his first job as an intern in Mr Martin’s office during transition year, a decade ago.

“He’s a gentleman,” Mr O’Connor said. “I don’t think he should have said what he said.

“It was a very heated debate, but I do feel that as a former Government leader … it was inappropriate.

“I thought what Fine Gael did during the week around tax was very Jekyll and Hyde and I didn’t see any remark on that,” he said, referring to a call from three Fine Gael junior ministers proposing tax cuts for middle-income earners, four months before the next budget.

‘EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED’

Mr O’Connor added that he was “extremely frustrated” at what he saw as a “disproportionate” level of power enjoyed by the Green Party in Government, and he claimed the public perception was that Transport Minister Eamon Ryan was “the most powerful politician in the country”.

The Cork East TD said the delivery of a Castlemartyr bypass had been a priority for him, and since meeting with Mr Ryan in October 2021, he had seen little progress.

Describing that project as “just one microcosm of other projects across Cork county”, he said his own perspective as a Government backbencher was that the delivery of other infrastructure projects such as the Mallow relief road, the N25 road between Carrigtwohill and Midleton, the Cobh access road, and the North ring road, were being “totally and utterly prevented from being advanced, I feel, by the minister for transport”.

He said he believed Mr Ryan’s ambition was to kick the infrastructure can down the road until after the next election “because that’s the best he can do”.

That election would probably come early, he said, in autumn 2024, and by then, he predicted, “there won’t be a single new kilometre of rail-line laid in the country”, despite Mr Ryan having been transport minister since 2020.

Mr O’Connor said it was his ambition to run for re-election, describing being a TD as huge privilege, but he warned that the public perception was of a booming economy and a State which was failing to deliver services for citizens.

Listing as “core Fianna Fáil values” a commitment to strong public services, looking after low-income households and those with additional needs, and a vision for social housing, he said he felt coalition with Fine Gael had impacted on many of those values, something he described as “a worry”.

He suggested that now was the time to start spending on services.

“We’re looking at running a €17billion surplus, and the last thing I want to do is leave behind a war chest for Sinn Féin,” he said.

“We have a year-and-a-half to go back and tell people we made a difference.”

Both Mr Martin and Mr Ryan were asked for comment.