Micheál Martin has apologised to the Fianna Fáil base for the “clear failure” of the party’s now-abandoned presidential campaign.
The Taoiseach, who confirmed this week that he will vote for Heather Humphreys, said he would not be campaigning for the Fine Gael candidate or telling his party to back her. “It’s up to individual people to make their own decisions and vote in whatever way they want,” he said.
He claimed that Independent left-wing candidate Catherine Connolly was “anti-EU” and that it was important that the president isn’t engaged in “constant negative commentary” about the EU, the United States or European countries.
More than 1,000 Fianna Fáil members gathered in the Clayton Hotel in Dublin 4 on Saturday night for the party’s annual Cairde Fáil dinner. Guests who travelled along the Mespil Road to the event had to pass a series of Jim Gavin posters, which remain on lamp-posts one week after the Fianna Fáil candidate sensationally dropped out of the race.
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In his speech, Mr Martin told the packed ballroom “it’s very important that I start by acknowledging a clear failure”.
“Over the last month I heard from many of you about how excited you were for us to be competing in a presidential election for the first time in 28 years. And I have also heard from you about how upset you are and how disappointed our members are about how events transpired,” Mr Martin said.
“I want to acknowledge that and to say how deeply sorry I am about how things turned out.”
He told attendees that the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party had had “a very long discussion” during the week.
“I want to acknowledge the constructive suggestions about making sure that we quickly learn our lessons from this and that we reflect these in how we move forward,” he said.
Mr Martin said he would support a plan to reform the way presidential candidates are selected in future.
Mr Martin told journalists at the event that he has not met Mr Gavin since he dramatically left the presidential campaign, but said “the family need time out” and he has been in contact with close friends of Mr Gavin. “I had sensitive discussions with Jim on Sunday evening,” he said.
The Taoiseach said he was “glad” that the €3,300 owed to Mr Gavin’s former tenant had been repaid. Mr Martin said that the tenant, who was this week revealed as Sunday World deputy editor Niall Donald, “is also a victim in all this”.
Asked if it was possible for Fianna Fáil to get any of the money it had already spent on the campaign back, Mr Martin said that “in every election campaign, particularly presidential election campaigns, you commit once you select your candidate.”
He said that the party was financially “resilient”. “So everything has to be looked at in perspective,” Mr Martin said.
In his speech to the party faithful on Saturday night, Mr Martin said that it is a “testing time” for the European Union.
“There are many who want to roll back its powers or to stop it helping countries faced with urgent threats. Unfortunately, these anti-EU sentiments are often found here. Of course these people always pretend that they are not anti-EU, but their demands expose the reality of their beliefs,” Mr Martin said in his speech.
Asked if he was referring to Ms Connolly, Mr Martin said: “I’m referring to Sinn Féin, I am referring to Catherine, who would have clear views in that way, Paul Murphy, People Before Profit, all of those are anti-EU.”
Mr Martin said that after Russia invaded Ukraine, “Catherine would be blaming the West”. He also claimed that Ms Connolly was part of a cohort of politicians, including Sinn Féin, who believed that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was a “warmonger”.
He said he felt it was important that the president of Ireland “is one who can get on with other countries”.
“And will not find themselves criticising or engaging in constant negative commentary about the European Union, about Germany, France or other countries, or indeed about the United States,” he said.
On his own leadership, Mr Martin said that he was “still as hungry as ever”. In what appeared to be a veiled reference to Cork TDs James O’Connor and Séamus McGrath, who had been publicly critical of the Taoiseach in the wake of the disastrous end to its presidential campaign, Mr Martin said that he had been “in every TDs constituency”.
Will Jim Gavin controversy do lasting damage to Micheál Martin’s leadership of Fianna Fail?
“I’ve canvassed for a lot of them. And one or two now, who are naysayers, I had my suspicions ... I worked very hard for. Okay? Very hard. But that’s life. I’m philosophical about all of that.”
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan this week indicated that he would be interested in becoming Fianna Fáil leader at some point in the future. Mr Martin said that that was “quite a reasonable thing to say”.
“And there’s nothing wrong with ambition at all. And Jim is proving himself to be a very competent and effective Minister for Justice,” Mr Martin said.
