I'll lead Fianna Fail into the next general election, says Micheal Martin

"Taoiseach Micheál Martin has vowed that he will lead Fianna Fáil into the next general election, and insisted he won't be stepping down as leader when Simon Harris becomes taoiseach next year. After a turbulent year for his party, Mr Martin appears to have warded off any threats of a heave against him, following a disastrous presidential election campaign in which his chosen candidate, Jim Gavin, withdrew from the race."

""I understand fully the anger of members of the party and the dismay at how things transpired," he said. Mr Martin said that at the time he had been "fixated" on government policies and accepted he "took his eye off the ball" when it came to the presidency, partly due to the trade war waged by Donald Trump. "People underestimate the degree to which the Government was very consumed by navigating that," he said, adding those matters "took up a lot of bandwidth" at the start of last year."

Micheál Martin vowed to continue as Fianna Fáil leader and to lead the party into the next general election, rejecting calls to step down when the taoiseach role rotates to Fine Gael. The party endured a turbulent year marked by the withdrawal of Jim Gavin from the presidential race and internal anger over how events unfolded. Martin acknowledged being fixated on government policy and admitted taking his eye off the ball on the presidency amid efforts to manage a trade war involving Donald Trump, which consumed significant government bandwidth. Recent polling shows 45% want him to go while party support sits at 18% and his approval rating rose to 36%.

Read at Independent