Former minister and Fianna Fáil TD Mary O'Rourke has backed broadcaster Gay Byrne's decision not to contest the presidential election and called on her party to focus on rebuilding rather than on choosing possible candidates.
Speaking today, Ms O'Rourke said she did not believe party leader Micheál Martin had been made to look foolish following Mr Byrne rejection of an offer that party members would facilitate the former Late Late Show's host nomination as an Independent.
Mr Martin had made the offer without widely consulting party members, many of whom were against the decision.
Mr Byrne admitted at the weekend he did not have the “stomach” for a tilt at the presidency and accused the media of pestering him to make a decision about contesting the election.
Ms O'Rourke said today she was not surprise by the veteran broadcaster’s decision not to go forward as a candidate.
"It was all beginning to mount up. Already I could hear the knives being sharpened all over Ireland. It appears that any time a decent candidate appears he or she is walloped off," she said during an interview on RTÉ radio.
"I think Gay took the right decision . . . I think the fray of the campaign would not have suited him," Ms O'Rourke added.
The former minister said any potential presidential candidates would likely be put off by the amount of scrutiny they could face by the media.
"I would just hate it, and I could see how anyone who had the thought would say the same thing. Now that's not to take from the worthy people who are already in the field but they have clearly already given it very full consideration and decided that their backs are able for the burden which they are going to be facing," she said.
Ms O'Rourke said she still believed there was an opening for another possible candidate but said that time was running out and that they would need to declare soon if they were serious about contesting the election.
Commenting on Mr Martin's approach to Mr Byrne, Ms O'Rourke said she didn’t believe it had seriously damaged the party leader.
"I myself would have preferred a more nuanced approach to which he [Mr Martin] or Fianna Fáil would have said to the guys and gals in the parliamentary party, all 33 of them - by the way you've a free vote for nomination purposes in the cause of democracy," she said.
Ms O'Rourke said the party was still recovering following the drubbing it received in the recent election and should focus on rebuilding rather than on the presidential election.
The infighting that would ensue if we were to put forward a candidate - all the energy, the money, the jealousy - all of those would be the agenda which should be taken up with more productive work," she said.
"Because of our numbers, particularly in the Dáil I think it has become difficult for Micheál Martin and his group to assert themselves, but they are slowly doing it. It's not going to be done overnight . . . that's going to take a long, arduous road, and I don't envy Micheál at all in the work that he has to do. I think it's a long prickly road, but we will be relevant again," she added.
Mr O'Rourke also called for the party to push for reform of the rules governing the election of the president. She said such reform would include changes to the length of the presidential term and to the age of candidates.
The former minister also called for the introduction of a first-past-the-post system for deciding the election of the President.
