Micheál Martin dismisses Willie O’Dea's 'short-sighted' criticism

“You can see why Fine Gael is happy for this to happen. It makes no sense for the Fianna Fáil leader to meekly permit it,” Mr O’Dea claimed.

Reacting, Mr Martin said the vast majority of Fianna Fáil members had voted to support the Programme for Government and said: “I am honouring that”.

“The one criticism I have of what Willie has said is Willie is looking at it totally through the lens of the party. The public out there, when they watch how political parties behave, see that straight away, and don’t necessarily appreciate it." The Tánaiste said: 

I think they’d prefer politicians to look at things through the lens of the public’s needs and the concerns of the public more broadly.

Speaking to reporters in Armagh, Mr Martin added: “I think it would have been a very short-term sort of approach to exploit the decision of Leo Varadkar to exit his position as Taoiseach and have a snap election.”

Referencing housing and a number of other key areas, Mr Martin said: “We can do all the analysis one likes, but we’ve got to really work on the key issues.”

Writing in the Sunday Independent, Mr O’Dea said it makes very little sense to pretend that the Government and the 33rd Dáil should run to its very last moment in February 2025.

“This strategy is politically inept and contradicts every basic precept of good governance,” he wrote.

“Passively allowing the Fine Gael reset and scramble for relevance without a robust reset for Fianna Fáil’s distinct identity puts the Tánaiste in danger of appearing like Lanty MacHale’s goat, from James Joyce’s 'Ulysses', willing ‘to go a piece of the road with everyone’.”