{"id":513130,"date":"2026-06-22T19:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513130\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:51:08","slug":"micheal-martin-should-step-down-this-year-say-fianna-fail-tds-meps-and-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513130\/","title":{"rendered":"Miche\u00e1l Martin should step down this year, say Fianna F\u00e1il TDs, MEPs, and senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

A solid majority of Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>\u2019s Fianna F\u00e1il colleagues surveyed by the\u00a0 Irish Examiner\u00a0believe he should stand down as party leader at the end of the year, with Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> and Dara Calleary<\/a> emerging as frontrunners to take over as leader.<\/p>\n

There is now a general consensus among Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> TDs, senators, and MEPs that Mr Martin should be allowed to steer Ireland through the EU presidency<\/a>, which runs until the end of December, but \u201ca conversation\u201d will be required immediately after that.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 Irish Examiner\u00a0has conducted a detailed sample of the party over the past week, speaking to 51 of the 70 members of the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party, excluding Mr Martin himself, which reveals that 59% (30 respondents) want to see a change of leadership immediately after the EU presidency.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan, the justice minister, is currently the most favoured member of the party, with 14 saying they would back him in a leadership contest, followed by Mr Calleary, the social protection minister, who has seven politicians happy to state they would support him.<\/p>\n

The remaining 30 would not provide a single name, but many offered up an opinion on who they think will feature alongside the two frontrunners in any leadership battle.<\/p>\n

These include Jack Chambers, Darragh O\u2019Brien, James Lawless, Norma Foley, and Mary Butler.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is going to be guided by the public, and if you look at the polls, it seems Jim is way out ahead,\u201d said one minister of state, citing a recent survey which ranked the justice minister as the most popular member of Cabinet on 22%.<\/p>\n

Another TD talking up Mr O\u2019Callaghan described the ministerial ratings as \u201cvery accurate\u201d. One TD said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Jim O\u2019Callaghan is quite aloof, but very bright, and people like to think he has star quality.\n <\/p>\n

Another long-serving member described him as having a \u201cpresence both intellectually and physically\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, in recent times, Mr Calleary, deemed a \u201csafe pair of hands\u201d, has been making moves, and stated on radio that he has been asked by \u201cloads of people\u201d<\/a> to stand for the leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cDara will do the dog work of meeting people and traipsing around the country, engaging with people, with the grannies, with the babies, and the man at the gate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Jim able for that? Has Jim got the interest for that? That\u2019s my only fear with Jim,\u201d said one politician who has served multiple terms.<\/p>\n

Another member said Mr O’Callaghan had been \u201cburnt\u201d by coming out early to back failed presidential candidate Jim Gavin<\/a> and would not be making the same mistake again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to lay out what they are offering,\u201d said one senior TD, adding: \u201cI want a shake-up of Mount Street [Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s HQ], I want change, I don\u2019t simply want a moving of tables or chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Martin should lead FF into next election’<\/p>\n

While the majority of parliamentary party members surveyed have set the end of the year as a leadership deadline, just two members were emphatic in their belief that Mr Martin should guide Fianna F\u00e1il into the next general election, as he has continuously stated as being his intention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One member suggested he should stay on until after the local and European elections, which are scheduled for 2029.<\/p>\n

Four among the ministerial ranks avoided a direct response, stating that there is no vacancy, or that they are focusing on their department work. However, several ministers did say that Mr Martin should go to allow for a leadership contest in early 2027.<\/p>\n

The remaining 21 politicians provided a range of non-committal answers, stating they either do not know when Mr Martin should stand down, or that they are willing to leave the decision to the Taoiseach.<\/p>\n

A growing number of those who want Mr Martin to exit at the end of the year are willing to see this happen through a heave. One long-serving TD said: “If he drives on after Christmas, someone is going to stand up against him.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was echoed by another member of the parliamentary party, who said: \u201cHe\u2019s safe for the presidency. After that, you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to survive after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaine Loughlin, Political Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A solid majority of Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s Fianna F\u00e1il colleagues surveyed by the\u00a0 Irish Examiner\u00a0believe he should stand down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79,74289,895,61,60,1843,43],"class_list":["post-513130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-news","tag-eu-presidency","tag-fianna-fail","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}