MICHEÁL MARTIN:FORMER MINISTER for foreign affairs Micheál Martin has insisted that a degree of recovery of support for the party would occur once the leadership issue was finalised tomorrow.
Speaking in Cork, Mr Martin said he was confident that following the election of a new leader the party would “recover support”.
He said it was healthy to have more than one candidate in the leadership race.
“I think it is very healthy, and I find it strange when people say we should all unite in advance of a contest like this.”
He added: “We are more than capable of having a civilised debate in a modern political context about who should lead Fianna Fáil.
“I think they are all rivals. I don’t want to identify which one is the leading candidate – they all bring a different perspective to it.”
Mr Martin said on Cork 96FM he was confident of having the backing of the majority of the parliamentary party in tomorrow’s vote, describing the response to his phone canvassing as “very good”.
The Cork TD acknowledged the enormous difficulty created by the economic collapse, and conceded that mistakes were made by the Government in the running of the country.
However, he stressed that it was important to highlight advances made in Ireland in recent years.
“We did make mistakes. On the other hand I would argue that the country is a very different place than it was 15 years ago.
“The most effective thing I did was in terms of special needs education. When I was an education minister there was no [special needs assistants] in mainstream primary schools. We dramatically transformed that, and we have more to do without question.”
Mr Martin said the finalisation of the Finance Bill was necessary in order to ensure an orderly transition for the next government and to meet international obligations in terms of the money we have drawn down from Europe.
“I think we need to keep on track because it is a very tight schedule. All of the issues will have to be legislated for and resolved.
“I think it would be a huge boost to the next government if the Finance Bill was out of the way in terms of meeting those quarterly targets that have been set down in terms of the drawing down of money from Europe.”
Green Party Senator Dan Boyle, also speaking on Cork’s 96FM, said the final straw for the party was that a new event was happening in Fianna Fáil every day.
He described the events of the last week as “almost cartoon soap operaish” bordering on surreal.