Party rages at Martin as FF meeting boils over
‘Martin’s supporters are in a delusional state’
AN ATTEMPT by Micheál Martin to regain control of his fractured party via a snap parliamentary party meeting on Friday afternoon went disastrously wrong, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learnt.
The Fianna Fáil leader called the meeting under cover of the Taoiseach’s planned national address to test his strength within his increasingly divided party.
Instead Mr Martin was ‘lambasted’ by TDs and Senators over his performance since the election with his capacity to carry any deal through his party now coming into question.
One senior source said: ‘The leader was sharply criticised. Significantly the new TDs and Senators and the centre of the party, solid figures like Niall Collins, are now openly expressing concern about the direction of the party.’
Clashes at the meeting were described as ‘astonishing’ by one source, who said: ‘Martin was accused of leading the party into a cul de sac with the Greens and Fine Gael, and of putting his own personal political interests above those of the party.’
Those who were most critical included Senator Malcolm Byrne who warned of a perception that the party message and membership were being lost in the rush to make Mr Martin taoiseach.
An attempt by Mr Martin to dismiss this as a story put out by ‘Sinn Féin clones’ did not calm the party.
Instead several TDs and Senators warned their leader that the process was dragging on too long, and ‘Fianna Fáil looked too desperate’.
The party was particularly furious about Simon Coveney’s attack on the Green Party over emissions targets and the perceived threat they pose to rural Ireland.
One source said: ‘It was another example of how we have lost our nerve. Even Fine Gael are robbing our clothes now. We should be saying what Coveney was saying but we are afraid.’
Within the closed-door meeting even those normally seen as being supportive of Mr Martin, such as Niall Collins, were critical of the party’s growing lack of definition.
One source noted: ‘Niall told his leader that Fianna Fáil needed to be more definitive on issues such as the Shannon liquid natural gas terminal’, which the Green Party want scrapped as part of any coalition deal.
Mr Collins also warned the leader, and the party, that Fianna Fáil ‘needed to be constructive and not be making an idiot of ourselves like [Green Party leader] Eamon Ryan with his red lines’.
One senior source said: ‘Micheál is going to struggle to carry his party far more on the Greens than Fine Gael.’
The source added that Mr Martin and his supporters ‘are in a delusional state about the fact that they lost the election, and their capacity to carry the party’.
Another source warned that Mr Martin ‘is dealing with a very divided party. After the messing of the last month it would be a toss-up if there was a vote between the current Green-Fine Gael option or the Sinn Féin alternative’.
Echoing the view of their senior colleague, the source said: ‘As of now, he has the full support of just over half the party.
‘His support is very equivocal. He has Dara Calleary, Darragh O’Brien, Thomas Byrne, Anne Rabbitte and Michael McGrath. After that he is being weighed, even by the new TDs. They are wondering do they have a future under Micheal.’