Enda must take blame for defeat, says Shatter
ALAN Shatter has said Enda Kenny has ‘serious questions to answer’ about the poor performance of Fine Gael in the General Election – and suggested the Taoiseach bears ultimate responsibility for Fine Gael’s failings at the polls.
The former justice minister, who lost his seat in Dublin South last week, was scathing in his criticisms of Mr Kenny’s personally appointed backroom staff.
But he stopped short of calling for the Fine Gael leader to stand down, saying this was ultimately the responsibility of the parliamentary party. The greatly reduced parliamentary party will meet today for the first time since the election.
Mr Shatter said: ‘Ultimately it’s the leader of a party who has responsibility for how a campaign is conducted, what the messaging is, what the approach is and I presume ultimately the Taoiseach is the individual who is consulted by what I describe as the praetorian guard as to whether there should be changes effected in a campaign.
‘So I’m now on the outside looking in and I don’t want to be firing spears at individuals, but clearly the Taoiseach has serious questions to ask himself and to answer and to the manner in which the campaign is conducted.’
Mr Kenny’s position as party leader was not something Mr Shatter would personally comment
‘Communications were a disaster’
‘We’re engaging with other parties’
on. ‘That obviously is an issue for the parliamentary party,’ he said.
The veteran party member was also critical of the team of three Cabinet ministers who had been working on election strategy for nearly a year: Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Frances Fitzgerald.
Mr Varadkar was in specific charge of a communications committee and Mr Shatter highlighted his disappointment with this area of the campaign. ‘I don’t think Brian Hayes [director of elections] should be a fall guy of the outcome of the general election, and I think there are major issue beyond just strategy, this wasn’t just strategy,’ Mr Shatter said. ‘It is quite bizarre that you had three senior Cabinet ministers involved in for practically a year to work out where the strategy went.
‘Frances would have been head of the strategy committee, Leo [was] unhelpful on the communications committee because communications were a disaster.’
Newly elected Dublin TD Noel Rock was supportive of Enda Kenny, but not of his personal staff.
‘I don’t think Enda Kenny has serious questions to answer, but the people who devised the strategies do, the backroom staff,’ he said. ‘They have serious questions to answer over their performance, and the fact that they weren’t able to change tack mid-stream either.’
Re-elected Dublin South Central backbencher Catherine Byrne was ebullient in her support of Enda Kenny.
‘I think the Taoiseach has done a wonderful job and I’ll vote for him as Taoiseach again next week – I actually don’t think he’s got enough credit for the job he’s done.
‘I’ll be honest, we’d a great campaign and we got help from the staff at HQ all the time, immediately.
Bernard Durkan, TD for Kildare North, was supportive of Mr Kenny.
He said: ‘Enda Kenny or HQ is not the issue here. We all knew what the issues were. We all had a role to play. I’m not going to go criticising the leadership or criticising the backroom staff, because if I did so I’d be criticising myself.’
Yesterday the Taoiseach said noone wants a second general election. And Mr Kenny revealed he would be talking to Fianna Fáil, after nearly 72 hours of public silence about where the country goes from here, following what he called ‘a bruising election for everybody.’ Speaking at Collins Barracks in Dublin where he attended the inauguration of a 1916 Rising exhibition, Mr Kenny said: ‘The numbers in the Dáil make it difficult to form a government. But that’s what the people expect. As the leader of the largest party, and as Taoiseach, it is my responsibility to ensure that prospect is put in place, and that includes talking to Fianna Fáil.’
Mr Kenny said the proposition the Coalition had put to the electorate was for the return of the Fine Gael and Labour administration. ‘The people have rejected that,’ Mr Kenny admitted. The Taoiseach was asked if he was aiming for the so-called Grand Alliance coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil – or instead a minority Fine Gael Government, supported from outside by Micheál Martin’s party. But he said he had no view on that as yet because negotiations had yet to take place.
‘We have not started any discussions about any options yet. There are a number of options, they’re all difficult,’ he declared. But despite the difficulties ahead, ‘nobody wants a second election,’ he said.
Mr Kenny was asked about the public call on radio for him to stand aside ‘gracefully as Fine Gael leader, made by former Cork East TD Tom Barry, while Mr Shatter declared on radio yesterday that Mr Kenny and others had serious questions to answer about the conduct of the campaign.
The Taoiseach answered: ‘First of all, it has been a bruising election for Fine Gael and Labour. It’s always difficult to lose colleagues.’
He said he would abide by party rules that say a Fine Gael leader cannot be challenged while in the process of negotiating for government, but thereafter, if going into Opposition, must submit their leadership to secret ballot by the members of the parliamentary party.
Referring to the formation of the next government, Mr Kenny said: ‘My job as leader of Fine Gael, which had the highest vote in the election, is to move on to what people want. That’s why we are engaging now in the process, with other parties, in terms of how that might happen.’
The Taoiseach declined to answer questions about what his greatest mistake had been in the course of the campaign.
He said: ‘The election is over, and we will deal with the decision of the people.’