“I do think we need a new leader.”
Fianna Fáil Galway-West TD Éamon Ó Cuív has called for a change in the party leadership.
Ó Cuív appeared on Today with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 on Tuesday and said Fianna Fáil should replace Micheál Martin as party leader or else the party will go into “terminal decline”.
“You can sit there and watch what was a very large party go into terminal decline,” Ó Cuív said.
“We need to look at everything again, we haven’t yet had a review of the election, we haven’t looked at what’s going wrong since the election.”
He added: “I do think we need a new leader, I do believe we need a change of direction.”
Ó Cuív refused to be drawn on who he would like to replace Martin as party leader but did say, “I’m not offering myself”.
When asked if Jim O’Callaghan could be a possible replacement, Ó Cuív said there is “plenty of talk” ongoing within the Fianna Fáil party.
“I don’t know what direction Jim O’Callaghan would take. There is plenty of talk going on within the parliamentary party.”
His comments come as the government today released details of a five-level response plan as part of a new roadmap that will determine how the country will live with the Covid-19 pandemic over the coming months.
Ó Cuív has been a vocal opponent of his party’s coalition with Fine Gael and the Green Party in government.
Speaking in June, prior to Fianna Fáil members voting in favour of going into government in coalition, Ó Cuív said: “There will again be two big parties in future, but one of them will not be Fianna Fáil.”
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