I will not resign if FF don’t end up in power, says Martin
MICHEÁL Martin will not resign as Fianna Fáil leader if the party is not in government after the election.
And he appeared to rule out a possible coalition with Fine Gael, insisting that people are telling him on the doorsteps they would be voting for Fianna Fáil to ‘get this crowd out’.
He also promised that his party would abolish Irish Water, even though his own party agreed to introduce water charges in a four-year plan drawn up after the arrival of the Troika. However, Mr Martin admitted yesterday that his party’s decision to cut minimum wage in 2010 was wrong. He said on RTÉ Radio 1: ‘That was a mistake. I would accept that that was wrong.’
The reduction, which Mr Martin voted for, was rescinded by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition.
In the interview with Seán O’Rourke, the Fianna Fáil leader said one of his party’s core values would be supporting families, pledging to reduce taxes for the ‘squeezed middle’. On the Universal Social Charge he said his party would be eliminating its imposition up to an earnings level of €80,000 annually. ‘The record of Fine Gael has been to have cuts that benefit people on very high incomes,’ he said.
‘The ESRI has used the phrase that those recent budgets were regressive.’
Asked if he would resign as leader of his party if Fianna Fáil failed to form a Government, he laughed and replied: ‘Not at all.
‘We are going into this election to win as many seats as we possibly can. We saw a situation where Labour had 33% support at one stage before an election and ended up with 19% on polling day. A lot can change.’
He told the Today With Seán O’Rourke programme: ‘This is much more than party positioning. This is about the positioning of Irish society. If my leadership is about anything, it is about that historical Fianna Fáil inheritance of equality of opportunity, in terms of access to health, education and housing. That is the policy position that has informed my thinking.
‘On the doorsteps, people are coming up to me in the streets and saying, “When are you going to get this crowd out?”’ Mr Martin said. ‘I am hearing that in every constituency. I am listening to lots of people across the country and engaging with them. They are telling me: “We are not voting for you to put Enda Kenny back in as Taoiseach.”’
Fine Gael TD Damien English later took issue with Mr Martin after the Fianna Fáil leader said the bailout deal negotiated by his party was the reason the economy was now recovering. ‘Given the hardship that Fianna Fáil imposed on the Irish people, it is in poor taste for its leader to claim credit for our economic recovery,’ Mr English said. ‘Ordinary people listening to Mr Martin will have been infuriated by his attempts to make a virtue of his party’s role in Ireland’s economic collapse.
‘Let’s be clear, the economy is not recovering because of the bailout deal which Fianna Fáil negotiated after it had ruined our economy. It recovered because of the hard work of the Irish people and because of sensible economic policies conceived and implemented by this
‘I would accept that was wrong’ ‘It has cost over €1bn at this stage’
Government.’
In his interview, Mr Martin also said that Irish Water had been a debacle. ‘It has cost over €1billion at this stage... It has caused huge issues across the country and we need to go back to the drawing board.’
Mr Martin said Irish Water was a NewEra proposal from 2009. ‘They actually named it Irish Water in the document drawn up by Simon Coveney. The idea of water charges was in our four year plan (agreed with the Troika), but it was in the Fine Gael documentation long before the bailout.’