Mr Michael Noonan has called for "root and branch" changes within Fine Gael.
"The demoralisation is palpable, the organisation is failing, the policy positions are not connecting and in terms of new politics being the ability to tell an alternative story, we haven't an alternative story to tell and the storyteller isn't convincing," he said.
The Fine Gael spokesman on finance was speaking on RTE Radio 1. "It's as clear as crystal to me now from talking to members of the public, from reading comment, and principally from consulting with my colleagues and with the party membership that Fine Gael is going to go and unless John Bruton stands down, he'll close us down."
Asked why the party supported Mr Bruton when Mr Austin Deasy tabled a motion against him in November, Mr Noonan said people had not been given enough time to consider the motion and they did not have any alternatives.
He denied that he and Mr Mitchell could not make up their minds about who would lead the party and said they were putting both names forward so party members would not be presented with a fait accompli.
He compared Mr Bruton with former Fine Gael leaders Mr Liam Cosgrave, Dr Garret FitzGerald and Mr Alan Dukes and said his record did not match up and the party was weaker now.
"It's failing to communicate its message properly and it's failing fundamentally to put forward an alternative vision," he said.
Mr Noonan said the public felt let down by Fine Gael and they knew the party would not get into government while Mr Bruton was leading.
He agreed Mr Bruton was a fighter and said he was "very good in defence". "Our difficulty with John is that when he's not defending he can't score for the party," Mr Noonan said.
