Politics

Pat Rabbitte: Critics of how Martin has played Fianna Fáil’s hand lack their own trump card

The rumblings over the the party leader’s tenure as Taoiseach rise and fall, stimulated by the latest opinion polls or by-election result. But right now, there is neither an alternative leader nor policy in public view

Taoiseach Micheál Martin: his internal critics have given him little credit for assuming the leadership of Fianna Fáil in unimaginably difficult circumstances. Picture: Fergal Phillips

I can’t recall another holder of the office of Taoiseach who endured such a difficult start as Micheál Martin. It wasn’t just that his government was besieged by the pandemic or that it lost a couple of cabinet ministers in as many months. Even on everyday routine decisions there was initially a surprising lack of sure-footedness and self-inflicted mistakes. And there was bad luck too. Even the visit to the White House with the bowl ...