Enda to step down as FG leader but stay as Taoiseach?
ENDA Kenny could stay on as Taoiseach but step down as the leader of Fine Gael, it has emerged.
Education Minister Richard Bruton said yesterday that the option of Mr Kenny staying at the helm while a new Fine Gael leader settles into the job should be considered.
But one potential successor to Mr Kenny, Simon Coveney, said speculation on the Taoiseach’s leadership is currently a ‘nonissue’. Mr Coveney said: ‘I think people should show a little patience to allow that process to take its course.’
In contrast, Mr Bruton, who has also not ruled himself out of running for the top job, said Fine Gael ‘will have to consider options’ like Mr Kenny stepping down as party leader but staying on as Taoiseach..
He said: ‘I don’t close my mind to any possibilities.
‘The important thing, I think, is that we achieve continuity without a disruption to the progress we’re making, but that… a new Government is formed that has a very clear sense of direction, and I think that’s the thing we need to get right.’
It is understood that other senior figures in the party are also now open to the idea of Mr Kenny staying on a number of weeks longer than originally envisaged, with senior sources suggesting that a short period could be given to him to see through a number of issues in relation to Brexit, and the North.
Yesterday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan – speaking after it emerged that Britain would trigger Article 50 and leave the EU on March 29 – said he expected Mr Kenny to stay on as Taoiseach until June.
He told RTÉ News: ‘So certainly for the primary principles of the negotiations, which won’t conclude until end of April/early May, the Taoiseach should be in position.
‘But it’s my own opinion that he should stay on for the second phase as well, until the details of Ireland’s negotiations position have been established and have been signed off on, and that’s the end of May, early June.’
Mr Kenny had promised that he would deal with the leadership issue ‘effectively and conclusively’ on his return from his St Patrick’s Day trip to the US.
The party is due to meet tomorrow evening and it is not expected that any motions of no confidence will be tabled in the Taoiseach, despite hints from Mr Kenny in recent days that he may stay on longer. Leadership candidate and Housing Minister Mr Coveney said he does not believe there will be any motions of no confidence in Mr Kenny, describing it as a ‘non-issue’.
Speaking at a jobs announcement in Little Island, Cork, yesterday, Mr Coveney said Fine Gael is ‘relaxed and content’ for Mr Kenny to be given time to put the leadership succession process in place.
He said that anyone tabling ‘a no confidence’ motion in the Taoiseach will attract very little support within the party. ‘I think that is a non-issue – I don’t think there is going to be a motion of no confidence,’ he said.
‘I don’t think there is any need for rancour or acrimony in the build-up to it... It is people outside Fine Gael who want that.’
Senator James Reilly, the party’s deputy leader, yesterday said that he expects a new Taoiseach to be in place by summer.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today With Seán O’Rourke, Dr Reilly hinted that there may not be any statement from Mr Kenny at tomorrow night’s parliamentary party meeting – but that some indication will be forthcoming in the next two weeks.
‘Continuity is important’ ‘There is no need for rancour’