Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin has claimed a "definitive anti-Government swing" has taken hold ahead of elections next month as he seeks to regain a party foothold in Dublin.
However, he accepted Fianna Fáil still had a distance to travel before it could translate people’s willingness to engage on doorsteps into hard votes.
Fianna Fáil is running five candidates : Mary Fitzpatrick in Dublin; MEP Pat "the Cope" Gallagher and Senator Thomas Byrne in Midlands-North-West; and MEP Brian Crowley and Kieran Hartley in South.
Crucial
Ms Fitzpatrick's campaign is crucial for the party given its lack of TDs in the capital.
“Clearly it’s challenging, but we’re encouraged by the fact that we’re in there competing strongly for that seat and we want to win that seat,” Mr Martin said of the task in Dublin.
There would be no division of the South and Midlands-North-West constituencies between Fianna Fáil candidates, Mr Martin said.
Asked if he will encourage Mr Crowley to share some of his large personal vote with his running mate, Mr Martin said an attempt at that approach in previous elections had the “opposite result”.
He was speaking at the launch of the Fianna Fáil manifesto for the European poll on May 23rd. He said voters were no longer concentrating on his party’s role in the crash, but he acknowledged they had not forgotten it.
He said the focus now was on the need to create jobs and the “unfairness” and “indiscriminate” nature of increased Government charges for service and the reduction in benefits.
"That's annoying people, they're very angry about that," he told reporters in Dublin.
Fragmentation
"What is clear is that there's a definitive anti-Government swing out there, put it that way, and you're perhaps beginning to see that in terms of the fragmentation that's occurring in the various levels of support that the different parties have.
“There’s a significant anti-Government opinion, that has become very clear in the last three to four weeks.”
The Fianna Fáil manifesto calls on EU leaders to fulfil their commitment to separate sovereign and bank debt. It also calls for the creation of a fiscal union involving “transfers between states” and allows modest revenue-raising capacity for the EU itself.
Noting that the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy will decline next year due to reforms, the manifesto says Fianna Fáil MEPs would promote the interests of family farms and the Irish agri-food sector.
