FF ON HIGH ALERT FOR NEW LEADER
Ó Cuív’s call to oust Martin gains traction
THE Fianna Fáil leadership race is well under way, one party TD told the Irish Daily Mail last night, after party stalwart Éamon Ó Cuív declared: ‘I do think we need a new leader.’
The Parliamentary Party insider said the battle to replace Micheál Martin had already started before Deputy Ó Cuív’s comments yesterday, but they had intensified it.
And another Fianna Fáil source said Mr Ó Cuív’s comments were ‘tapping into’ the frustration felt by TDs and senators with the Taoiseach. The TD said: ‘He [Ó Cuív] is just voicing the same opinion that is held by a sizable number of the Parliamentary Party. They want a new leader and they want a change in direction and they are quite p ***** off with Micheál because he hasn’t really offered that change in direction. He won’t facilitate any other way other than his way.’
Multiple sources have told the Mail the party needs to be taken in a different direction before it is decimated, after a recent poll put it on just 10% – the lowest ever.
Mr Ó Cuív told Today With Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday that the party needs to replace Mr Martin. He did not, however, say who should replace him, when asked if Dublin TD Jim O’Callaghan should take over the role. ‘I haven’t got a clue [who should be Fianna Fáil leader] because I don’t know who is offering themselves,’ Mr Ó Cuív said. ‘I’m not offering myself. I do think we need a new leader. I do believe we need a change of direction.’
He said that he had disagreed with Mr Martin on a number of issues in recent months and years. He said that he does not think his party should have gone into coalition with Fine Gael and they should have considered coming to an agreement with Sinn Féin.
The party TD who spoke to the Mail said the leadership race ‘certainly has intensified after that [Ó Cuív interview]. ‘It is all down to whether people respond to it. If everyone in the Fianna Fáil party woke up tomorrow and there was a new leader, they would all be delighted. Whether they are prepared to put in a new leader is another thing. It is all about critical mass before anyone makes a move. I’d say the critical mass is there in spades beneath the surface, but who is there to break the surface,’ the source added.
Mr Ó Cuív went on to say that the latest Red C opinion poll – which saw Fianna Fáil drop to just 10% – is concerning. He said: ‘You can’t sit there and watch what was a very, very large party that represented huge swathes of the people go into terminal decline and not at some point say, “Hang on a minute, we need to look at everything again”.’
Fianna Fáil sources put forward three leadership contenders - Jim
O’Callaghan, Michael McGrath and Dara Calleary. One source said: ‘There are now a number of players there that are interested in not just the leadership, but interested in changing the party’s fortunes by changing the party’s direction.’
However, a TD who supports Mr Martin raised the practicalities of having a leadership race in the middle of the pandemic.
‘The country is facing too many crises for this internal navel gazing. The party needs to get fully, as it mainly is, behind the Taoiseach,’ they said.
‘It is not surprising coming from Ó Cuív. It isn’t the first time he has come out at an awkward moment... in the middle of Brexit, in the middle of the Covid crisis and the budget coming up.’
‘Party going into terminal decline’