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Micheál Martin has come under increasing pressure from his party members, councilors and TD to stop government formation talks with Fine Gael.
John McGuinness, Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, who has often disagreed with his party leader, said on the RTÉ Today show with Sarah McInerney that he would like to see his ruling party with Sinn Féin.
He said there was a consensus between the party members and their elected TDs that they should speak to Sinn Féin.
“We have three midsize parties now in the Dáil and big economic and health problems and I think they should form a government and address the economic and social problems we face,” said McGuinness.
“I don’t see any reason in the economic circumstances that we shouldn’t have a government made up of those three parties, that has been my opinion from the beginning, and the reason we don’t have a government is because we speak to Fine Gael and the Greens now with nothing emerging.
“It is clear that Sinn Féin is excluded from the government talks because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have decided to speak to each other instead of the third party the electorate voted for.
“We also said we would not go to government with Fine Gael, now we are facing something completely different.”
McGuinness said that “instead of threatening another election” that he alleges whispered in “the Leinster House political bubble,” the three sides should develop a government program to address the problems facing the country.
“It seems ridiculous that we spend so much time talking to two other parties for the government, instead of three,” he said.
When asked if his party would accept Mary Lou McDonald as Taoiseach, McGuinness replied: “They are willing to accept a Taoiseach whose party lost the election, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
“Leo Varadkar opened the door to the Green Party which also has a mandate as Taoiseach: Politics has changed considerably and we should listen to the electorate and move on.”
“I do not see it difficult to work with other parties if we take seriously that the country moves again.
“Exclusion does not work and we encourage reversal of that in the north.”
“We have to be frank with the electorate and follow their decision from the polls and form a government, and cut the nonsense.
If we continue to deal with this old style of policy and do not carry out reforms, we will have failed.
Similarly, Fianna Fáil Cllr Deirdre Kelly sent a statement to the press on Wednesday afternoon, lamenting her party: “it is no longer the party of great leaders like De Valera, Lemass or Lynch.
“Now it is a new generic version of the center-left Social Democratic parties that flourished, but are now dying, across Europe.”
Ms. Kelly, who represents the party on the Cork County Council, said, “There are very genuine reasons to worry about a Fianna Fáil / Fine Gael coalition,” and asks how compatible the two sides would be.
“Fianna Fáil now faces her greatest challenge. She can unite with Fine Gael and end up being effectively eliminated in the next election.”
“If Fianna Fáil wants to survive, the party needs to go back to the common people of Ireland and really listen to them.
“That will not be possible in a coalition agreement with Fine Gael.”
Various grassroots groups of local Fianna Fáil members have written the party’s elected representatives and party headquarters in recent weeks in an effort to discourage movements to form a government with Leo Varadkar’s party.
Rumors of possible leadership against Martin began after the party’s poor performance in the February elections, however, the leader himself recently said that the comment did not gradually eliminate it.
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