Minister for Housing Simon Coveney expects to win the backing of members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party who have not yet declared who they will support in the leadership contest.
Mr Coveney did not specify whose support he expects to attract but those yet to declare include Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, Kildare TDs Bernard Durkan and Martin Heydon, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Taoiseach Enda Kenny. MEPs Seán Kelly and Mairead McGuinness are also yet to say who they will support.
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Mr Kenny and Mr Noonan are not expected to say who they will support, since they have held the position of Fine Gael leader. Mr Heydon also keeps his vote secret because of his position as chairman of the parliamentary party.
Leadership election
Mr Coveney was speaking before a rally in the Kilmore Hotel in Cavan and said the leadership election was about more than just TDs, Senators and MEPs, the majority of whom so far have backed his rival, Leo Varadkar.
The Minister was asked if he was disappointed that Mr Creed, a fellow Cork TD, had not declared for him. He said he did not want to discuss individuals but said he had spoken to other TDs with a view to convincing them to switch their support from Mr Varadkar to him.
“Michael Creed isn’t the only person who has done that,” he said of those yet to declare. “There are a number of others as well and I think I will do pretty well among that group of TDs who have decided to keep their voting intentions to themselves.”
‘Ball of smoke’
He agreed with a suggestion that Mr Varadkar’s move to bring forward a review of a controversial grant for first-time house buyers, with a view to abolishing it if it is found to have driven up house prices, was a “ball of smoke”. He said a review was scheduled to take place before the next budget regardless.
“I don’t think there was anything new in what Leo said so I don’t quite know why he put it into the document. There is a review, as you’d expect.”
Mr Coveney also said he believed he can beat Mr Varadkar in the four regional hustings due to begin on Thursday and said the pair spoke before Cabinet on Tuesday and agreed the leadership contest will be fair.
“We said good luck and that we would respect each other but that this would be a real contest, and I think there’s a lot of respect between the two of us, actually. When this over I think we’ll work together to make sure the party has been strengthened by the process rather than weakened by it, but in the meantime there’s a contest that I intend to win.”
