Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said he has no interest in becoming Fine Gael leader or Taoiseach either now or in the future.
Mr Donohoe, seen as a potential successor to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, has firmly ruled himself out of one day leading his party or the country.
The Dublin Central TD told the Bloomberg news agency that he has no ambitions to lead now "nor in the future". Mr Donohoe, who is also Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, made his comments to Bloomberg while in London as part of the annual programme of overseas visits by ministers for St Patrick's Day.
“It is a short and simple question that actually does have a short and simple answer,” he said. “Which is: we have a Taoiseach and I have a job. The only focus I have is in continuing to do this job. When we got to this point before I said I don’t have an interest in being Fine Gael leader.
“I am very proud of my job and what I try to do in the office I hold, and it would be a great hope of mine to try to continue to do this job even -particularly - if the environment we are in is more volatile and full of more charge. That’s what I want to do.”
When it was put to him that he was only ruling out leadership for now, he said: “Nor in the future. This is my job. I am very privileged to hold two offices in my country. The only focus I have is doing both of those as well as I can and I have no interest beyond that. I am very privileged to serve a transformational leader for our country.”
Mr Varadkar has appointed Mr Donohoe Fine Gael’s director of organisation for the next general election, and the Minister for Finance said he wants to see the party perform well in future.
“I want to play a role, whenever it happens, in seeing my party continue to do well in the future, allowing the Taoiseach to continue to serve in his office because I believe he is only getting going. I believe he is capable of achieving great things for our country, both at home and on a European and global setting.”