Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin today reiterated his interest in leading Fianna Fáil but insisted he will not be mounting any challenge to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
Speaking to The Irish Times in Whitegate, Co Cork this morning, where he was formally opening the new Bord Gais power plant, Mr Martin said he would be interested in the position if it arose.
“But there isn’t any vacancy and I won’t be precipitating any issue in the future that doesn’t arise now,” he said. “I will be supporting the Taoiseach in the pathway he has laid forward.”
Mr Martin said he expected and hoped Mr Cowen would be leading the party into the next general election and he had his “absolute” support.
Asked about Fianna Fail’s rating of 13 per cent in a Red Ca poll last week, Mr Martin admitted the party face a “huge electoral challenge” but dismissed any suggestion party was facing oblivion.
“The future of the party is secure,” he said. “The opinion polls indicate an enormous political battle ahead for the party and a lot of work has to be done in the next number of weeks top turn those figures around and reverse the trend, which has been quite negative for some time.”
He said the world was in the midst of the most unprecedented economic crisis since the great crash in 1929. “That obviously has an impact on people which reflects itself in electoral preferences and so forth. Sop I’m under no illusions and the opinion polls reflect that.”
He also said he was confident the budget would be passed.
“It is important for the country that that would happen,” he said. “That said, it’s going to be a very difficult budget and one cannot take any vote for granted,” he said. “The Government is very conscious of that and is very anxious for sake of country to get the budget through and we are doing everything we can to facilitate that.”