If Fine Gael does not form the next government then the party should opt for a younger leader, a party TD said tonight.
John Deasy admitted Enda Kenny currently had a good chance to become Taoiseach after the mid-2007 General Election but said that if he did not it would be a failure and he must step down.
Mr Deasy, who was sacked from the front bench by Mr Kenny in 2005 after he lit up a cigarette in the Dáil bar following the introduction of the State's smoking ban, also said he would consider the top job himself.
The Waterford TD (39) said: "There should be a challenge if we don't get into government. If there is a narrow defeat or a narrow failure, for me that would constitute a total failure for FG."
He added: "If we don't get into government the next time around, then everything should be on the table and that includes the leadership. Yeah I would consider myself at the time."
He also suggested the party should consider a younger leader than 55-year-old Mr Kenny.
"I also believe that there should a generational shift."
Of the party's current prospects of getting into government, he told RTE: "I think right now we have a very good chance. Enda Kenny has done a very good job."
A spokesman for the Fine Gael press office said the best thing Mr Deasy could do was to help get a second party TD get elected in the Waterford constituency in the forthcoming general election.
Mr Deasy is chairman of the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee and a member of the Public Accounts Committee.
In 2002 he won the Dáil seat vacated by his father, former Minister for Agriculture Austin Deasy, who served as a TD between 1977 and 2002.
PA