Cowen 'should have been dropped' earlier

Fianna Fáil would be doing better in the polls if they had removed Brian Cowen as party leader last September, Mary Hanafin has said.

Ms Hanafin said there was "no doubt" that the party's standing in the poll, currently at 16 per cent would be better if Mr Cowen had been removed earlier.

She said the Government was too preoccupied with the economic meltdown last autumn to deal with the leadership issue.

"I have no doubt if we had a change of leader last September from a party point of view, we certainly could have gained more, but there is no point in looking back," she said.

"Our focus is very much, not on the party, but on trying to make the right decisions difficult and all as they were, but there was a huge number of decisions made in relation to the budget situation and the finances of the country."

Speaking after the launch of National Employment Week, the Minister said she had worked as a teacher for 17 years, but her post was no longer available.

She had been informed by the Department of Education that she would be entitled to a €11,000 pension when she reaches the age of 65.

Ms Hanafin described Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny's entitlement to a €100,000 lump sum and €30,000 a year pension as "very, very wrong" given the short period of time that he had been a teacher.

Mr Kenny, who has since foregone his pension entitlement after it was made public, was a teacher for only four-and-a-half years before he went into politics in 1975.

Ms Hanafin said Mr Kenny was entitled to benefit from the scheme as it was, but she accused him of hypocrisy for criticising Fianna Fáil ministers and their severance payments.

"The scheme was there and naturally he was going to benefit from it. His thing was criticising everybody else for taking payments, lump sums and severance payments and keeping quiet about his own."