by Kathy Masterson
LIMERICK TD Willie O’Dea has defended Micheál Martin’s leadership of the Fianna Fáil party following a disappointing result for its candidates in last week’s by-elections.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this week, Deputy O’Dea praised Deputy Martin for bringing Fianna Fáil “literally from being on its knees” back to being “a very significant player in the next Dáil” and said that the party leader could count on his support.
He added that there was no obvious successor for Micheál Martin, and warned that the last thing Fianna Fáil needs now “is to have a messy and divisive leadership contest and go in to the general election a divided party”.
“Micheál Martin is extremely hard-working, he’s extremely capable. If he was to be replaced, the replacement would have to come from within the parliamentary party – and I say this with the greatest of respect to my colleagues, I respect each and every one of them – I look around the table in my mind’s eye and I don’t see the Messiah. When I look in the mirror I don’t see him either,” commented Deputy O’Dea.
Fianna Fáil failed to take a seat in either the Roscommon South-Leitrim or the Dublin South-West by-elections last week.
“By-elections come and go but really what matters is how many seats we are going to win in the different constituencies in the next general election. We have increased our support quite significantly since the last election when we were literally on our knees,” continued Deputy O’Dea.
He concluded: “What we have to do now is to produce a realistic policy platform that will give us a clear identity, realistic and radical solutions to the problems facing the country. We’ve plenty of ideas, we’re working on those and we will have such a solution when the time comes.”
