Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is not a “top-down” leader as he responded to the “devastation” within Fianna Fáil at its Presidential election campaign.
“I am sorry,” Mr Martin said, as he defended his leadership by pointing to the party’s performance in the General, local and European elections last year.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, the Taoiseach said he did not put “extensive pressure” on people to vote for ex-Dublin football manager Jim Gavin as Fianna Fáil’s presidential candidate.
Mr Gavin withdrew from the race weeks after it emerged he owed a former tenant thousands of euro, which he has since repaid.
Mr Gavin was put forward as the party’s candidate by Mr Martin and deputy party leader Jack Chambers after expressions of interest from other hopefuls including MEP Billy Kelleher and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Mr Martin said of Billy Kelleher, who contested Mr Gavin for the Fianna Fáil nomination, “in hindsight he could have been a stronger candidate”.
Watch: Martin didn’t put ‘extensive pressure’ on Fianna Fáil members to nominate
“I would have preferred if he had rung me to say he was interested, but that did not happen,” Mr Martin said.
“Right throughout May, June and July we didn’t have a candidate. I took soundings from the party and I could not detect any great groundswell for a candidate,” Mr Martin said.
He added: “I’m not a top-down person … I’m not that kind of person.”
“Party members are not making too much of it, it’s a very serious issue and they are very disappointed,” he said.
Mr Martin said that everybody involved in the selection “acted in good faith”.
“There are no guarantees in the Presidential election as we know,” he added.
He has said he has no regrets in not running Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof or Mr Ahern as candidates for his party.
“Bob came very late,” Mr Martin said.
He said that he had great respect for Mr Ahern, but added that he should not have been the candidate.
“I think would have raised all the issues in terms of what transpired in the Mahon tribunal.
“The Good Friday Agreement would always be his outstanding legacy, and it is an outstanding legacy, along with other things.
“But I think we know the nature of Presidential campaigns, and I don’t know why he would have brought that upon himself.
“I didn’t detect any groundswell within the parliamentary party for Bertie to be a candidate in my conversations with TDs, that was more than confirmed,” he said.
He said that an internal party review will examine how candidates are selected in the future.
“No one gets it right all the time and I’ve accepted responsibility for this … It didn’t work out,” Mr Martin said.
“We are a strong party, we have a strong membership and we have a good pipeline of candidates coming through as well and we will be looking at identifying people for the next local elections,” he added.
Mr Martin has said that he is “full of energy” and the Government is “not out of touch”.
Asked if he found it difficult to stand with President-elect Catherine Connolly as she was declared the winner of the election, he said “not at all”.
“In victory or in defeat, I’m a decent person. The first thing you do is you congratulate those who are victorious, you commiserate with those who are not.
“I’ve had good days at counts. I’ve always had in our family. Have had a tradition, we stay at the count until the very end.
“Even if I’m elected, I’ve never left a count in my own constituency until the last person is elected, and particularly if one of our own has been eliminated, I always stay for it,” he said.
Additional reporting PA