Outgoing Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said today he will support whoever is elected the new leader of the party but he warned they must be prepared to tackle its image.
He said he had done his best in the role and he would support whoever is elected as the new leader of the party.
In an interview on RTÉ radio, Mr Rabbitte said he believed there is a perception that Labour is somehow begrudging about Ireland's economic expansion and that the new generation feels the party does not identify with their aspirations.
Mr Rabbitte caught party members by surprise last week when he announced his decision to step down with immediate effect.
In an interview on RTÉ radio, Mr Rabbitte also said he believed Labour had been "outgunned on the ground" in the run-up to the May general election, in which his party failed to gain seats.
This hasn't been exactly the happiest week of my life, to be honest. [There's] been a great deal of sadness about the decision that I made
Outgoing Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte
"I just feel I did my best while I was there. I think that this country is continuing to change. I think every general election is different and I think the Labour Party may have more flexibility with me not being in the leadership.
I'm very identified with a certain view - that's not likely to change. I will of course support the new leader whatever he or she decides to do, but my own views on certain fundamental matters in Irish politics don't change."
Mr Rabbitte said he believed the party had been "outgunned on the ground" in the election campaign.
The party needed more fire-power in the constituencies, he said. Mr Rabbitte said a "manifestly outstanding" candidate, Dominic Hannigan, in Meath East, had failed to win a seat he was widely tipped for.
He put this down to a lack of organisation "on the ground".
Asked the question that Labour's own election posters posed before the May election - "But are you happy?", Mr Rabbitte said: "This hasn't been exactly the happiest week of my life, to be honest.
[There's] been a great deal of sadness about the decision that I made.
"I am more happy that colleagues have come around over the last couple of days to saying to me now, that since I decided that I wasn't going to contest a second term, that they now do acknowledge that it was better to go now at the beginning of the lifetime of the Dáil than disrupt the party in the middle of the life of the Dáil and go on the eve of local and European elections."
Speaking separately today, one of the likely leading candidates for the job of leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore said the party should set out to win close to 30 seats in the next general election and to build an active, campaigning organisation in every constitutency.
Addressing the Desmond Greaves Summer School in Dublin, the Dún Laoghaire TD said: "We need to end the perception, and reality, of Labour being the 'half party' in a two and a half party set-up. These, of course are all matters that will no doubt be debated throughout the party and among the wider population in the weeks ahead.
"I believe that that debate will be good for Labour, good for progressive politics and good for the country. I look forward to it, whatever role I may play in it."
Mr Gilmore also called for more flexibility in the labour market and in the State's welfare system to meet the requirments of a modern Ireland. Hesaid the Labour movement, particularly in Europe, can be proud of the welfare state but that it needs to be reformed.
"The 'job for life', certainly in the private sector, is a thing of the past. Most workers will have to go through transition periods either between jobs or between complete changes of career, probably a number of times during their working lives.
"Our existing model of 'unemployment' payments is inadequate and out of date. We need a new model which will provide for pay-related support while the worker is undergoing re-training or further education or preparing to set up a new business," Mr Gilmore said.
He said the reforms needed on welfare called for a new thinking on the relationship between the individual and the State and its institutions.
This new thinking was to be found, to some extend, in Labour's 'Begin to Buy' housing policy, advocated in the run-up to the general election, he said.
"It is of course a pity that Labour did not get the three extra seats which we needed to put us in Government to implement that and other policies. But that should not stop us from campaigning for the policy."
Mr Gilmore said
Labour produced "a very comprehensive manifesto" for the general election.
"We should now build on it and use the ideas in it as the basis for campaigns, in the Dáil, the local authorities and in our constituencies."
Meanwhile, Labour Youth called on Dublin North East TD Tommy Broughan to stand as a candidate for the leadershp of the party.
Following an emergency meeting of its national executive yesterday, spokesman Dermot Looney said Mr Broughan "shares Labour Youth's desire for an independent electoral strategy promoting Labour as a leading party of government".
"The executive made clear the need for a leader who will renew and build Labour as a party capable of leading a government. Knee-jerk proposals such as breaking Labour's symbiotic link with trade unions should not be allowed to frame the debate. Nor should a false dichotomy of 'Old'and 'New' Labour," he said.
Mr Gilmore, Mr Broughan, Wexford TD and justice spokesman Brendan Howlin, deputy party leader Liz McManus and finance spokeswoman Joan Burton are all likely candidates for the leadership, which will be decided by the party membership, probably in October.