Martin ‘to lead FF in to the election’ despite Gavin fiasco

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has insisted that it is his intention to lead Fianna Fáil into the next general election, despite the ongoing fallout from the party’s disastrous presidential election campaign.

Mr Martin told reporters in Cork that he believed there was an obligation on representatives to concentrate on issues that affect people’s daily lives, and, he said, this was borne out by feedback from the public and from his parliamentary party colleagues.

“I don’t think people are that impressed with a party becoming obsessed with its own internal situation," he said. “The biggest issue is housing - the biggest issue facing young people is housing. I received a mandate at the last general election as leader of Fianna Fáil, it’s only 12 months ago, I received a mandate from Dáil Éireann nine months ago in January when we formed this Government.” 

The Taoiseach was speaking during a visit to the Longview housing development in Ballyvolane, which includes more than 700 new homes in a mixture of private and social housing.

Mr Martin has had a torrid time since Fianna Fáil’s presidential candidate Jim Gavin – who had enjoyed the party leader’s strong support – withdrew last month from the campaign, 19 days before the election.

Mr Gavin ultimately polled 7% in the election which saw Independent candidate Catherine Connolly elected in a landslide. Since then, Fianna Fáil has seen a sharp decline in opinion poll numbers, with Mr Martin’s personal popularity similarly dropping.

In the days immediately after the election, a group of backbench TDs was said to be gathering signatures for a motion of no confidence in Mr Martin’s leadership, but those TDs are now believed to be awaiting the completion of a report on the party’s presidential campaign.

The Taoiseach dismissed any suggestion that justice minister Jim O’Callaghan, who is seen as a possible leadership rival, had been less than visible of late in his support of the party leader.

“Jim has been very supportive, we just had a meeting before Cabinet last week, there are no issues there,” he said.

Mr Martin said Fianna Fáil members were entitled to voice their opinions and to be critical, but needed to maintain perspective.

“We do, for the health of the party, need to robustly examine where we went wrong, that is all accepted, but we have to have a laser-like focus on the issues.

“I went for election as a leader of a party knowing I could become Taoiseach - not many others did, by the way, but I did.

“We gained seats, we became the largest party in the election.

“Over the past nine months we have set a lot of foundation stones for this housing issue, in terms of reform of the rental sector, in terms of the standardisation of apartments, in terms of Vat in the budget, I am very determined to get a grip on this.

“I am very determined to improve infrastructure. We have elevated disability to a unit within my own department, to a Cabinet sub-committee.

"We still have an awful lot of work to do. We made good decisions on child poverty. We have a lot to do and I’m hungry to get things done,” Mr Martin said.

“That is my job as Taoiseach and that is what I intend to do.”

Media Training 

Mr Martin made his remarks in Ballyvolane before fresh controversy erupted when it emerged that former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates had failed to disclose that he had supplied media training to the Fianna Fáil candidate during the presidential campaign.

Mr Yates continued to work as a media commentator throughout the campaign, and, for three mornings around the election, he filled in for Newstalk host Pat Kenny.

Two weeks before the election, he suggested, hypothetically, that if he were working for Fine Gael, he would advise the party to “smear the bejaysus” out of Ms Connolly, a phrase which later became an ironic rallying cry for the Connolly campaign.

Mr Yates has been dropped from the popular Path to Power podcast, which he co-hosted with journalist Matt Cooper, while Newstalk has said it is reviewing the matter.

In a statement issued yesterday, Fianna Fáil said it had hired MrYates to provide interview and debate training for “two sessions in the early stage of the campaign, between the period September 23 to September 29”.

“There was no further training or intervention provided after September 29,” the statement added.

“Ivan’s training totalled approximately four hours.

“He did not provide any campaign advice, nor was he involved in the campaign team.”