Former FF TD says party ‘cannibalising’ itself under Martin

Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent

Former Fianna Fáil TD Noel O'Flynn has criticised party leader Micheál Martin and said the party is cannibalising itself rather than gaining support under his leadership.

Mr O'Flynn said that Mr Martin was "an interim leader" and he was still closely associated with the regimes of both Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen with whom he served in cabinet.

“I voted for Micheál Martin in the leadership. But I said three years ago that he was an interim leader and I am still of that view,” said Mr O’Flynn.

Speaking on The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's Red FM, Mr O'Flynn said that Mr Martin suffers from his being in government when Ireland went into recession.

“Micheal has the same difficulty (as Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen) because he was in government for 14 years and sat at the cabinet table,” he said.

First elected to Dáil Éireann in 1997 for Cork North Central, Mr O’Flynn represented the constituency for 14 years before stepping down at the 2011 general election.

Mr O’Flynn said he agreed not to run in 2011 following a request from Mr Martin as the party leadership believed the party had a better chance of winning a seat by running one candidate.

He said he was appalled what has happened to Fianna Fáil over the past few years and said the party had failed to attract public support since the last general election.

“Look at what has happened with Fianna Fáil since 2011 – they have no traction, they have no identity, their policies are not acceptable to the public,” he said.

"It reminds me of the Conservatives when Maggie Thatcher was drummed out of the leadership in the 1990s and John Major took over...You had nothing but in-fighting, jockeying for position in that party. You had them cannibalising each other just like Kenneth [his son Cllr Kenneth O'Flynn] said in a paper the other day."

Mr O'Flynn said that he would never stand for Fianna Fáil agin and it was unlikely that he would ever stand for Fine Gael or Sinn Féin but he might consider running as an independent.