The following is the full text of a statement issued yesterday by Mr Jim Mitchell and Mr Michael Noonan:
Following extensive consultation within the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party and with the Party's wider membership, Jim Mitchell and Michael Noonan have decided to table a motion of no confidence in the Leader of the Party, John Bruton.
We will put this motion to next Wednesday's (31st January) meeting of the Parliamentary Party.
Before making this decision, we reflected carefully on all the issues, and as a result we are both agreed - as indeed are many of our colleagues - that Fine Gael needs a new beginning.
This should be a time of unprecedented support for our Party, given the succession of scandals associated with Fianna Fail and its manifest failure to bring about social justice or to tackle major economic bottlenecks.
It is painfully clear that we are failing to connect with large sections of the electorate and this, we believe, is in large measure due to John Bruton's style of leadership. Furthermore, we are failing in our democratic duty to provide a viable alternative to the current administration.
What is not openly known is that the present style of leadership lacks genuine consultation both with the Front Bench and the Parliamentary Party on major policy matters and on Party business.
Fine Gael has a wide range of talent at its disposal that is not being properly utilised, as motivation and teamwork are not features of John Bruton's leadership style.
Political parties increasingly depend on their leader to communicate with the public in modern politics. Often a party is exclusively identified with the persona of its leader. The chief executive of any company or the manager of any football team that had endured such persistently poor results would have voluntarily resigned by now.
We are jointly presenting the Fine Gael Party with a credible, effective and dynamic alternative, which will realise the full potential of the Party.
When the motion of no confidence is passed it will be a matter for the Parliamentary Party to choose the new leader. We will both offer ourselves for election as leader and we realise that other Deputies may also wish to contest the vacancy.
If either of us becomes Leader, we will offer the deputy leadership to the other.