MARY HANAFIN:FIANNA FÁIL leadership candidate Mary Hanafin acknowledged yesterday that Micheál Martin was the frontrunner.
However, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport said she was very encouraged by the response she was getting from Fianna Fáil TDs.
“As I set my views on the future of the party, I feel privileged and honoured that I was considered by some of my colleagues to be leadership material. All elections are an uphill struggle, and the election of a Fianna Fáil leader is no exception.”
She continued: “This is an election worth contesting, and I am glad that people feel my contribution at Government and party level equips me to be leader.”
She said many TDs had yet to decide on who they would support.
Ms Hanafin paid tribute to her proposer, Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey, and her seconder, Tipperary North backbencher Máire Hoctor.
She said the four contestants were colleagues and friends. “There is none of the animosity and bitterness which characterised leadership campaigns in the past. There is a genuine interest in the party’s welfare.”
Ms Hanafin said her ministerial experience had been in socially caring ministries, giving her an appreciation of issues beyond the economic. “We are not just an economy, something we should not lose sight of.”
She said she would bring the balance that needed to be struck between social and economic issues to her work as Fianna Fáil leader.
Ms Hanafin said she would also travel throughout the country to rebuild the party organisation.
“I have the energy and commitment required for the job. Politics is my life.
“I was first elected to the party’s national executive when I was in Ógra Fianna Fáil, so I have had a long involvement with it.”
Ms Hanafin said there was no reason why Fianna Fáil could not continue to be a great national movement as well as a political party.
“I want people to be proud to be a member of Fianna Fáil,” she added.
