Mr John Bruton has dismissed suggestions that his leadership of Fine Gael could come under threat following the poor performance of his party and himself in the Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll.
Mr Bruton said the party had a very good system whereby, after each election, it chose its leader for the next Oireachtas term.
"For the duration of this Oireachtas, the Fine Gael party, every one of them, decided that I am to be leader."
He was speaking to journalists in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, after a meeting of his frontbench. Hinting at a possible frontbench reshuffle, Mr Bruton said he was supported by a very talented team. If the team was not showing its talents, as it should be, it was his job, with those close to him, to ensure that young members in particular were given an opportunity to shine in the leadup to the General Election.
Asked if there would be a reshuffle, Mr Bruton replied: "There will be the maximum deployment of the Fine Gael talents to achieve the best possible results for the party."
While expressing disappointment with the poll, he added: "I regard polls, where people actually go and place a marked piece of paper in a ballot-box, and where they know their decision is going to make some difference, as far more important than hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions." He said the poll was taken before Ms Helen Keogh had announced her decision to leave the PDs to join Fine Gael. "I believe that if the poll had been taken after that, it would be a very different result."
Mr Bruton said the poll was also taken before Fine Gael, alone of all the parties, exposed in the Dail that the Government breached its Cabinet procedures in the manner in which it appointed Mr Hugh O'Flaherty to the European Investment Bank.
Mr Bruton said the frontbench had decided to demand a sworn public inquiry into the Philip Sheedy case, as well as agreeing to move a Dail motion, in private members' time, calling for increased decentralisation to areas like South Tipperary.
