FIANNA FÁIL should consider skipping a generation and installing a young leader who is not associated with the current economic difficulties if a vacancy emerges, Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews has said.
He has also ruled out moving from his own constituency of Dún Laoghaire to fight the next general election.
“I think there are a lot of really young guys in there, the likes of Michael McGrath, Peter Power and John Curran that are, in my view, as entitled to consider themselves as possible future leadership candidates as the ones who are mentioned all the time.
“Skipping a generation has a lot of merit to it because these are guys who are not associated with the past,” said Mr Andrews. He added that this was an internal discussion that would occur within the party only if a vacancy arose.
He said he had enormous respect for Brian Cowen and for the way he had conducted himself in Government during the crisis.
“He hasn’t complained, he’s not a spin merchant, he’s worked day and night.
“He clearly has a problem with communication but I think he has done amazing work over the last 2½ years,” said Mr Andrews.
He said the personalisation of the criticism that Mr Cowen has received as Taoiseach was “absolutely incredible” and did not really reflect what people think of him.
“I know many people in Opposition who have huge respect and admiration for him. They clearly don’t talk about him and you wouldn’t expect them to, but they know he is a man of backbone.”
Mr Andrews said he is definitely not going to move from his constituency to fight the election even if there is a danger that either he or Mary Hanafin, who is also TD for Dún Laoghaire, could lose their seat if Fianna Fáil performs badly.
There has been speculation Mr Andrews would move to Dublin South, a constituency that is unlikely to be contested by a standing Fianna Fáil TD following the decision of Tom Kitt TD to stand down at the next election.
“I’m born and bred in the area. I lived there all my life . . . I’ll take my chances with the people of Dún Laoghaire and see how we go.
“There is obviously a danger of losing a seat. You never know what will happen in a campaign. We’ll roll the dice,” he said.
Mr Andrews said it would be tough for Fianna Fáil in the next election but he did not think the party would perform as badly as the opinion polls suggest.
His best bet was that the election would be held at the end of March.
“You saw in the last election Fianna Fáil improved throughout the campaign and you saw in the British election how Brown improved in the campaign.”
“People in polls talk about how dissatisfied with the Government they are and how dissatisfied with cuts in their pay and social welfare entitlements and services they are, but when it comes down to making a choice between a set of policies, I would argue our policies are set out in a very transparent way . . . and in a coalition between Fine Gael and Labour there are clearly very many contradictions,” he said.
Mr Andrews said it was likely that Fianna Fáil would undergo some sort of evolutionary step as a result of what the country had gone through in the past three years.
However, he said the party had a challenge to make sure “people remember all the good we did for the country” during the election campaign.
“Ireland is unrecognisable from 10 years ago. We are proud of the payments we make to pensioners, we are proud of the payments we make to social welfare recipients.
“While we have to apply some retrenchment now, you cannot undo the great things that have happened throughout the country, particularly the built infrastructure – the roads, the childcare facilities,” said Mr Andrews.
He said his one regret as Minister of State for Children was that he did not have a bit more time to complete some of the policies and changes he had introduced.