'No pressure' to resign as leader

Press conference: Tánaiste Mary Harney said yesterday that she had come under no pressure to step down as leader of the Progressive Democrats.

Speaking at a press conference in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin to announce her intention to resign as leader, Ms Harney said she had taken time over the summer to reflect with her husband on matters political and she had come to the conclusion that the time was now right for her to step down.

She said that when elected 13 years ago she had never envisaged remaining in the post for so long.

She acknowledged that the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, had ambitions to lead the party but she said that others probably had as well. It was a good thing that people of talent wanted to give more to politics, she remarked.

She rejected any suggestion that she had been "pushed out the door" by Mr McDowell.

Ms Harney said that she was more than willing to continue on as Minister for Health but she fully accepted that this was a matter for her successor as PD leader and for the Taoiseach.

Ms Harney also confirmed that she wanted to continue to represent the constituency of Dublin Mid-West in the next Dáil.

She said that no one bar her husband and a small number of close friends had been aware of her decision to stand down as party leader until yesterday. She had informed her staff and the party chairman, Senator John Dardis, yesterday morning, and members of the parliamentary party shortly after lunch.

"In June I received the unanimous support of the parliamentary party who felt that I should continue to lead the party into the next general election but when I reflected - and quite honestly I was not going to stay much after the general election - I felt that it would have been dishonest of me, between now and the election and in the campaign in particular, to put myself forward knowing that I was going to stand down quickly afterwards."

Ms Harney said that she could honestly say that her decision to resign had been made without any pressure being placed on her and that it was one with which she was 100 per cent happy.

She said that once she had made her mind up on holiday in Italy, she had never wavered. However, she wanted to choose the appropriate way to make the announcement to her party colleagues.

"I was conscious that some people might be out of the country, and in particular that the Minister for Justice was out of the country next week and the last thing I wanted to do was to make the announcement [in his absence]. I was very cleverly checking diaries without anybody knowing over the last week or so from my holidays," she said.

Ms Harney said that when she considered stepping down last June she had spoken to a few people about it and they had talked her out of it.

"I learned one big lesson: that you should never consult about big decisions like this. It is a very bad idea," she said.

Ms Harney said that she had gone to great lengths to bring Mr McDowell back into the party after he had lost his seat in 1997 and she acknowledged his talent and the enormous contribution he had made as Minister for Justice and as attorney general.

She also said that Liz O'Donnell was an outstanding member of the parliamentary party as were Tom Parlon and Tim O'Malley.

She said that Mae Sexton and Fiona O'Malley had indicated that they were not interested in running for the leadership.

Ms Harney said that she would be keeping to herself who she would support in any leadership election. She said that she would not canvass for or against anyone.

She said that she would prefer if she could just be Minister for Health and not have to worry about leading the party. The health brief was a seven-day-a- week job.

However, she said that she had received no assurances from any candidate with regard to keeping the health portfolio and that it would be wholly inappropriate and improper to put any pressure in this regard on her successor.

She said that she would give the new leader her full support.