Taoiseach ‘confident’ in his leadership as Fianna Fáil TDs receive election report

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said his leadership of Fianna Fáil is not in trouble as his parliamentary party is set to review a long-awaited report into its selection process for the presidential candidate.

Mr Martin said some people had been engaged in an “agenda” of “attack lines” against him for several weeks in the run-up to the publication of the report.

The review was initiated to examine how the party’s selection process saw ex-Dublin football manager Jim Gavin emerge as the Fianna Fáil candidate for the presidency.

Mr Gavin was championed by Mr Martin and deputy leader Jack Chambers but withdrew from the contest three weeks before polling day after it emerged he owed thousands of euro to a former tenant in overpaid rent.

Questions have been raised about Fianna Fáil leadership’s level of knowledge of the tenant dispute prior to the vote to choose a candidate.

Billy Kelleher, an MEP for the party who also sought the nomination, refused to express confidence in Mr Martin on Monday.

He told RTÉ radio: “I will wait for the report to be published and then, whatever is contained in the report, I will act in the best interest of the party and the best interest of the integrity of the membership right across the country who are deeply upset and hurt over what happened.”

He said it would be “wrong” to comment on confidence before the publication of the report.

Speaking to reporters on his way into Cabinet, Mr Martin said he would be sharing the report with the parliamentary party “promptly”, having received it on Monday evening.

Asked if his leadership was in trouble, he said: “No, not at all.”

He said he would be meeting the chairman of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and the party whip to arrange a meeting of elected representatives on the matter.

He told reporters: “I will deal with the entirety of the report this evening because it’s a report in the first instance for the Fianna Fáil party – because the Fianna Fáil party asked for that.

“And the terms of reference were very clear that it would be completed, it would be handed to me, and then I would share with the parliamentary party, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Mr Martin reiterated criticism of some of the media coverage of the report, adding that “false” assertions about individuals had been made.

Asked if he was relieved he had the report, he said: “I’m much happier that I have it. I didn’t have it all along and I was taken back to some of the commentary last week, where it seemed to people to be acting on reported leaks or whatever, and the assertions contained in some of the commentary last week were simply false – and I had to put that on the record.”

Pressed on what was incorrect about the coverage, Mr Martin refused to “contextualise assertions that were made”.

He told reporters he was “not going to get into an argy-bargy with anybody”.

“The report will be published. The report will go to the parliamentary party. The full entirety of the context will be there,” he said.

Mr Martin said that he was “absolutely” confident he could remain as leader, adding that he had received a mandate when Fianna Fáil was returned as the largest party in the Dáil in last year’s general election.

“I’ve been focused all along – I know others have been focused on the ‘gotcha moments’ and attempting to create ‘gotcha moments’ and attempting to create attack lines against me,” he said.

“I mean, that’s been the agenda for the last number of weeks, but I haven’t been focused on that. I’ve been focused on the work as Taoiseach, the housing issue, disability, child poverty, the infrastructure challenge.

“And if you look at the last number of months, it’s been about policy from my perspective and doing my work as Taoiseach.

“I’ve studiously avoided being deflected by any other issues.”