Kenny says he will `electrify' Fine Gael

Fine Gael leadership contender Mr Enda Kenny has pledged to "electrify", re-energise and revitalise the party, from grassroots upwards, if elected next week.

Launching his leadership bid yesterday, the Mayo TD described himself as someone with "no baggage" but "not a lightweight" either, who could "command the attention of young people to join politics".

Speaking on RTE Radio's News at One, Mr Kenny said he had been approached by people who both supported and opposed last Wednesday's successful motion of no confidence in Mr John Bruton to stand "on the basis that I provided a fresh face with a long political experience (and was) somebody who has the energy and the stamina to re-energise and revitalise the Fine Gael electorate . . .

"This row, if you like, was about lack of image, lack of style, a different form of leader, a new face," he said. "I have an electoral contact with people in a way that, I believe, Jim Mitchell or Michael Noonan do not have.

"I'm going to electrify the Fine Gael party," he added. Rejecting claims that he was a "non-worker", or inexperienced in important portfolios, Mr Kenny said his record in office proved otherwise.

"I don't know where this notion of Enda Kenny not having dealt with substantial issues over the years has come from . . . When I became minister for tourism, Bord Failte was in chaos after Charlie McCreevy. The industry was in a very fragile state. I dealt with that sure-footedly, very competently, brought people with me, restored confidence.

"As minister for trade, I chaired the Council of the Ministers of Trade for Europe, very competently, very successfully, brought people with me.

"So just because one has a sense of humour and is not weighed down by the troubles of the world does not mean that one doesn't have a conviction, a commitment or a competence to do the job in a proper manner."

As chief whip in opposition, he said, he could claim "central credit" for the consensus which brought Democratic Left into conversation with Fine Gael to form the rainbow government.

On the North, Mr Kenny said he shared Mr Noonan's view "that the articulation of Fine Gael's nationalism wasn't spelled out clearly enough by John Bruton and when it was spelled out by him that it was not fully understood". He said Fine Gael had always been a nationalist party.