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Updated at 8.30pm
TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has told this evening’s Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting that he will deal with the leadership issue effectively and conclusively when he returns from the US after St Patrick’s Day.
The Taoiseach’s message to the meeting tonight, which lasted around ten minutes and was greeted with an ovation in the room, will likely be enough to avoid a motion of no confidence in his leadership in the coming weeks.
“It’s all calm on the western front,” was the response of one TD at Leinster House, asked about Kenny’s performance tonight.
The Fine Gael leader has been under increasing pressure to go in the wake of his poor handling of the latest Garda whistleblower revelations last week.
He previously said he wouldn’t lead the party into another general election – and there were fears that Fine Gael could have found itself facing into a snap election last week, as the Maurice McCabe revelations left Leinster House reeling.
Regina Doherty TD / TwitterUnited we stand 😀 @FineGael
— Regina Doherty MEP (@ReginaDo) February 22, 2017
Likely successors
Kenny’s comments tonight have been welcomed by the two TDs most likely to succeed him as leader – Housing Minister Simon Coveney and Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics at the weekend, Coveney had said he felt Kenny should be given the space to make his decision, but that he should deal with the issue when he returned from Washington.
Varadkar had put out a statement the previous night observing “everyone is waiting to hear from the Taoiseach” and saying the current situation was “distracting and destabilising”. In the wake of Coveney’s comments, however, he said he agreed with his colleague’s timeline for Kenny’s departure.
“It’s the right approach,” Coveney said tonight.
“I think it gives Enda time and space now to put a process in place. That will happen after St Patrick’s Day when he comes home from [the Washington trip] and I think he’s happy with that. And I think the party should support him on that.
We’re in Government at the moment and it’s important the party sticks together.
The Taoiseach deserved the respect he got at the meeting, Coveney said.
“I think he showed an authority that will hopefully now deliver a process that will keep the party together and have a transition that’s well managed, that will keep the Government together and the party together.”
Tonight’s development “takes the heat out of” the situation, he added.
There had been speculation that Kenny, who’s been Fine Gael leader since 2002, would face a motion of no confidence if he didn’t present a formula of words tonight that would keep all factions of the party happy.
“I’m happy anyway,” Coveney said.
It’s more or less what I was hoping would happen and it did happen.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterFG chairperson Martin Heydon on tonight's party meeting pic.twitter.com/7JotfpbQDc
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) February 22, 2017
“Literally no one else spoke,” on the issue at the meeting, which was chaired by party chairman Martin Heydon, said the Cork TD.
He’s been through dozens of political storms, he’s been in politics for 42 years. He’s not phased by these things. I think he showed calm and experience tonight and the party responded.
I think he showed authority and experience and I think people respected that.
I think that a lot of people in the party, the vast, vast majority wanted this evening to happen as it did.
You don’t want public spats or divisions in the party. We have a lot of things to do in Government. And I think what he outlined tonight satisfied people that they could trust him to manage the process.
Varadkar agreed that Kenny had “settled the matter,” adding:
The leadership will be dealt with effectively and conclusively after the St Patrick’s Day visits. I think everyone is relieved that we have avoided damaging divisions.
Another TD said that everyone applauded the Taoiseach’s comments. “Everybody was nodding so that is an indication that everyone was clearly satisfied.”
There was a bit of defiance in that he spoke about not being phased by motions of no confidence but I think he meant that he had been there before – and he left it at that. He satisfied even his most strident of critics.
The official version
Party chairman Heydon said in a statement the Fine Gael party would now proceed in “a united fashion”.
The Taoiseach has addressed this issue and he will tell us of his intentions after his trip to the US next month.
He has already said he will not lead Fine Gael into the next General Election. He reiterated that position again tonight. He has told us he will outline his intentions effectively and conclusively shortly after his return from the US.
Fine Gael continues to focus on the important work of this Government with our coalition partners. Our motivation is the people of this country and the issues that matter to them. We continue to focus on implementing the Programme for Government.
“Over 200,000 jobs have been created since 2012,” the statement said. ”We are now on course to achieving full employment which is remarkable considering where we were six years ago.”
It added:
There are international challenges coming with the United Kingdom leaving the European Union and a potentially changing European frontier. We are concentrating and working night and day on these issues. Fine Gael’s work continues.
- With reporting from Daragh Brophy
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Piece of shit coward. Sits in his car, shoots from his car, does a legger in his car and when he was low on fuel he pulls into a petrol station.
Happens every day in parts of America, and you don’t hear of it because the majority of them are black
Supernova – are you saying black people commit the most shootings or reports aren’t newsworthy because it’s a picture we’ve seen thousands of times?
Most of the victims are black actually but does the race matter? A crime is a crime is a crime.
This is being portrayed as a mad man shooting but it seems like more of a gangland style deal.
Drivebys happen a lot in the US. There were 733 in 2014 alone with 154 deaths.
Yeah but I’m saying if the individual was black I don’t think it would have been a big a news story I’m afraid. If a white man gets killed all hell breaks loose.
Hang on, are you saying when a black man gets killed all hell *doesn’t* break loose?
Have you been watching the news coming out of the states for the last year or so?
I dunno how this has gone international? what about all the drive bys that happen in Compton?
If it was in America this happened you would have quadruple the comments on this story.
…and blaming the NRA.
You’d have quadruple the comments if it was the US because it happens every other week in the US, often happens to kids, and it’s once in a blue moon in other countries. The last one in Germany was 2010, we’ve had a dozen HUGE ones in the US since then.
Perfectly fair game to blame the NRA since they are the second most powerful lobby group in the US, and oppose even moderate gun regulations like preventing civilians from owning military grade weapons, and preventing people from the terrorist watch list or the mentally ill buying guns. You’ll notice we, who have one of the top 5 most conservative gun regs in the world, have never had a mass shooting, and the UK has not had one since the 70s when it adopted very similar rules.
Saadi news but why is it being reported here? We have shootings all the time between rival gangs, does that make news in Germany or is there something more to this?
hopefully it was Enda and Angela
Idiot of the highest order!
Tis an ill wind that blows through Bad Windsheim this morning.
when will the killing end. we need to get rid of guns altogether.
his getaway car low on fuel. not very Mr Brooks was he.
So so sad. This senseless violence needs to stop.
Kaiser Wilhelm II was quite a decent guy. Just a bit egotistical I suppose. Britain vilified him in the Great War for propaganda purposes, that’s all.
@Ashley Brown. He also must have thought of other’s welfare as well,, for he brought in the first European pension and welfare programs,albeit at the behest of Chancellor Otto Von Bismark, without which we might still be fighting for them even now.
—”Social programs in Germany began in the 1880s.
“In November 1881, at the direction of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm I, issued a decree stating, “those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity have a well-grounded claim to care from the state.”
have your say