{"id":145175,"date":"2025-10-25T20:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/145175\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:56:09","slug":"taoiseach-rejects-assertions-that-dublin-castle-u-turn-came-after-pressure-from-backbenchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/145175\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach rejects assertions that Dublin Castle U-turn came after pressure from backbenchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has rejected assertions that he opted to travel to Dublin Castle for the presidential election<\/a> declaration after facing pressure from Fianna F\u00e1il backbenchers.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday, spokespeople for Mr Martin said he would not attend the election count centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, this decision was reversed, and he later confirmed he would travel from Cork for Catherine Connolly<\/a>\u2019s confirmation as the next president of Ireland.<\/p>\n

It comes amid growing anger in Fianna F\u00e1il about their leader\u2019s handling of the election campaign following the selection of Jim Gavin<\/a>, as well as his support of Fine Gael\u2019s candidate Heather Humphreys.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly won the election<\/a> in a landslide, securing 914,143 first-preference votes.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Pressed about his plans, Mr Martin insisted that he had initially sought to make an appearance on RT\u00c9\u2019s Six One in Cork, before travelling to Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I thought the count was later and I was asked to do the news and I thought I\u2019d do it from Cork, but obviously the count was coming quicker. That\u2019s all,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

Asked why his spokespeople had said he would not be in attendance, Mr Martin said: \u201cFair enough, but I\u2019m here. I came and there was nobody who rang me about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said it was \u201cpossibly\u201d an issue of communication. Pressed further if he was throwing his communications staff under the bus, he rejected the assertion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take responsibility, I\u2019m not throwing anybody under the bus here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Fianna F\u00e1il TD Padraig O\u2019Sullivan called for both the Taoiseach and T\u00e1naiste to go to Dublin Castle to congratulate Ms Connolly on her victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the Taoiseach and T\u00e1naiste should be down to Dublin to congratulate her,\u201d Mr O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cYou have to take the losses with the victories.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan said he expected Ms Connolly to \u201cconduct herself well\u201d as president, citing her time as Leas Ceann Comhairle as an example.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan said the Government parties needed to take \u201cmajor learnings\u201d from the election, particularly that over half the electorate opted not to cast a ballot, and that of those who did, around 13% opted to spoil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leadership of both Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael need to be humble and understand why this happened,\u201d Mr O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be the same old politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Sullivan said many Fianna F\u00e1il voters had struggled with going to vote for Ms Humphreys. While he said many did, they did not come out in significant numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have question on how we motivate our base going forward,\u201d Mr O\u2019Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

Galway West TD, John Connolly, said it was crucial in the wake of the presidential election that work is done to restore confidence in the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the primary way to rebuild reputation and trust in the electorate,\u201d Mr Connolly said.<\/p>\n

‘Most embarrassing election for Fianna F\u00e1il since 2011’<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there is ongoing anger within Fianna F\u00e1il about the party\u2019s handling of the election.<\/p>\n

Cork TD James O\u2019Connor told the Irish Examiner that Fianna F\u00e1il could have won the election if Billy Kelleher had been chosen as the party\u2019s candidate over Mr Gavin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiche\u00e1l Martin has accepted the blame,\u201d he said. \u201cHe apologised to the parliamentary party, and he apologised to the entire Fianna F\u00e1il organisation at the Cairde F\u00e1il dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Billy Kelleeher would have been an outstanding candidate for the party, a credible candidate, and also somebody that has all of the attributes and skills to perform in an election that, at a minimum, demanded that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Louth TD Erin McGreenhan congratulated Ms Connolly on her victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonetheless, as a Fianna F\u00e1iler, I\u2019m disappointed that we are here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had a candidate on the ballot, and the leadership decided to disenfranchise our grassroots by [the Taoiseach] saying he was voting for Heather.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt our PP [parliamentary party], it was expressed that a preference for another party should not happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Privately, Fianna F\u00e1il members were furious over how the election was carried out. One Fianna F\u00e1il TD told the Irish Examiner that the election had been \u201csome shitshow\u201d and \u201cour lads made an absolute balls of it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another parliamentary party member said that it is \u201cincredibly concerning\u201d that such a high number of people either did not vote or spoiled their votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just can\u2019t afford to have their heads buried in the sand anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Fianna F\u00e1il member said this was the \u201cmost embarrassing election for Fianna F\u00e1il since 2011\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brought a huge level of shame amongst the Fianna F\u00e1il members and supporters,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision that was taken by the party’s hierarchy in relation to this presidential election. Irrespective of the outcome, we do know that we had plausible candidates that could have performed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources in Fianna F\u00e1il were particularly critical of Mr Martin\u2019s handling of the campaign, placing significant blame on the party leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might want to disassociate himself from the shambles but he can\u2019t,\u201d one TD said. \u201cHe is at fault\u2026 You can\u2019t just say sorry for a \u20ac500,000 mistake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TD added that there needed to be some kind of repercussion for the failure of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Another TD said the campaign was an \u201cabsolute disaster\u201d, and they did not have huge faith in the internal review being carried out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has rejected assertions that he opted to travel to Dublin Castle for the presidential election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-145175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115436806903682752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}