MEP says Martin's communication style over Cork blockade was 'defective'

Changes must be made from the “defective” communication style employed by the Taoiseach during the fuel protests, but it is not the time for a leadership heave, Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has said.

It comes as the party’s three youngest TDs, including 27 year old James O’Connor from Cork East, issued a statement expressing “real and deep concern” with the recent actions of the government.

Mr O’Connor, along with Galway’s Albert Dolan and Tipperary’s Ryan O’Meara said: “It should not require protests and deep community frustration to get a government to listen and to act.

“We must face that reality that the social contract is strained to breaking point. Too many of our peers see no connection between what happens at the ballot box and what follows in government.” 

They said that their statement was “not about challenging any individual or singling out any member of government”, but about challenging themselves and their party colleagues to do better.

It is understood the Taoiseach met with the three TDs on Wednesday night. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Martin said he did not think his leadership was under threat: “I do not, in any shape or form, feel under threat in that respect”.

The party’s MEP for Ireland South, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, said: “I want to see change, I share the views of those three young gentleman that I admire so deeply.”

Speaking on Today with David McCullagh on RTÉ Radio 1, she said: “It’s time for change and quick change, but I don’t mean change of the leadership. I haven’t lost confidence in Micheál Martin, but there’s room for improvement… we’ve had it before over the presidential debacle and we now see it again.

“I do think the message was mixed and uncertain, and of course uncertainty spreads like a virus faster than the problem itself. When leaders don’t talk and communicate decisively people assume the worse, when leaders do communicate at a time of crisis, words really matter.

“We don’t need preaching, we don’t need preaching teaching, we don’t need talking down to people and we don’t need moral authority platitudes.”

Though she praised his leadership with regard to the protestors blockading the oil refinery in Whitegate, Cork, she said: “Unfortunately the communication piece was defective. I liked the leadership he showed but the leadership was lobsided one sided, what he didn’t show at a time of real crisis, happening in real time, was vulnerability.” 

Ms Ní Mhurchú said he was “a great leader, very decisive”, who had guided Ireland well through Brexit and Covid, and that he works night and day, but that he needed to communicate this work that was going on in the background to people.

Nobody has approached her about a potential motion of no confidence, she said, and she did not think it would be the correct action for the party to take.

“We don’t need a heave, I don’t want a leadership challenge. We have a cost of living crisis, a fuel crisis, we have wars going on everywhere… this is the last thing we need.

“From a European perspective, Ireland have been getting it in the neck now and again about security and defence. We need to excel during this EU presidency between July and December, we need to win back friends in Europe and we need Micheál to be the Taoiseach during that presidency.”