Taoiseach Micheál Martin has refused to give his backing to Stephen Donnelly to remain on as Health Minister in the upcoming Christmas Cabinet reshuffle.
Mr Martin was speaking at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in the RDS on Saturday afternoon where he wholeheartedly endorsed the Housing Minister, Darragh O’Brien, staying on in his brief.
He listed the Government’s supposed achievements in housing as reasons for Mr O’Brien to remain in the challenging role.
The Taoiseach also provided a list of advances he believes the Coalition has made in Health, but, crucially, he would not commit to reinstating Mr Donnelly in Health.
Meanwhile, Mr Martin was feeling very confident in his own abilities as he did not rule out returning to the office of Taoiseach again after the next general election.
Fianna Fáil’s eighthTaoiseach hands over the seal of office to Fine Gael leader, Leo Varadkar, on December 15th as part of the Coalition deal.
It was widely expected that he would step down as Fianna Fáil leader sometime after this landmark moment too.
Speaking about the Cabinet reshuffle he has to decide on, Mr Martin said: “I really believe that Mr O’Brien has brought a breadth in terms the number of programmes we’ve brought to Housing, in terms of the numbers of houses being built.
“We have a clear agreement with our partners in government in respect of key positions, but also that we will discuss then at the end of the year the broader situation in terms of the various changeovers and so on.
“But that’s a matter to be discussed at the end of the year.”
However, the Taoiseach then added that Mr O’Brien is already safe.
“I made that clear last night, there was a certain context last night in terms of the homelessness figures.”
He would not give the same assurance to Mr Donnelly: “Again, as I said, in terms of Health we have made much progress, especially in women’s health….. In respect of the government, the three party leaders will discuss that closer to the end of the year.
He added: “You have my position on this, there was a context to last night’s questions, all of you know that.”
In terms of returning as Taoiseach, Mr Martin said on Friday: “Sure, who knows, we’re very determined…. In the last poll we were at 24%.”
He added: “I’m making the point generally that people need to reflect a bit more in terms of when we’re commenting about who is going to be where in the future.
“Politics always throws up surprises and you may be surprised yet.”
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