Outgoing Labour Party leader Alan Kelly has said that he believes Ivana Bacik will be the new leader of the party which should unite behind her.
“Ivana is incredible, she was fighting issues before they became fashionable. She deserves her chance - let's give it to her,” he told his local radio station Tipp FM.
When asked if he would contest the next general election, Mr Kelly said he would not make any rash decisions. He would take “a week or two” to reflect and acknowledge that in the past he had said he did not intend to remain in politics until he was 65 as there were other things he wanted to do.
Mr Kelly denied that “back room machinations” were behind his decision to resign the leadership of the party.
Collective support of the party
The reasons were concerns about where the party was going and what it was doing. It was pointed out to him that he did not have the collective support of the party which he accepted “straight away.”
“I suppose I'm in a very unusual situation. I became a leader during a pandemic and I stayed leader during the pandemic - from a national point of view, it was a very strange place to be operating politically. There was only one topic for two years - Coronavirus and how we were going to deal with it.
“I think when the Taoiseach rang me yesterday morning, he expressed thanks that I always put the country first and ensured that in any way I could help by being reasonable I did it, I think he said that publicly as well.”
“Being in Opposition during those two years was very difficult, he said.
“The second reason is very simple - that in polls we weren't rising in them, they were static, my own satisfaction rate wasn't bad, but the party poll numbers were stagnant.
“I suppose the third reason - I was a member of the government from 2011 to 2016. I think we did fantastic work.
“I think as a Government we will go down in history as saving the country financially, but from a party perspective, I think it's time we moved on from that.
“I think that was a fairly significant factor that was referenced to me by my colleagues as well.”
There were no other reasons, he said.
“I'm not going to get into internal Labour Party machinations, but it is what it is. It is what I have outlined from my colleagues who came to me on Tuesday early - reasons outlined as I said and nothing else.
“I knew we were in a difficult situation, when you're in politics leading a party at times can be a lonely job.
“It can be extremely difficult, it can be stressful, I wouldn't say my health has gained from it, to be honest you've got to balance life.
“I've a young family, very elderly parents, many people around where I live around Nenagh know that and the circumstances.
“I tried to always look after my county, then trying to run a party nationally - I'm not going to lie to anyone and say it wasn't difficult, because it was very difficult.”
Fork in the road
Mr Kelly pointed out that he was 46 and that he was happy with what he had done. He had contested seven different elections, at different levels – Seanad, European Parliament and Dáil and won them all.
“This is just another fork in the road, another chapter, moving on.”
Mr Kelly said that he had received thousands of messages and that it was obvious that some people were upset, fed up and angry. But he was in “a good place” and “quite content”.
“Politics is tough. It was a difficult week, a very emotional week, but I am a Labour Party man.
I want the party to go forward. I want the party united.
“Ivana almost certainly now will be the next leader and I want people to unite around her and I want us to go forward. She is a very honourable person.”
Mr Kelly said that modern politics was very difficult, it was a tough game and something that needed to be looked at by society otherwise good people would not go into politics.
“I think we need to have good people in politics, but politics has become really, really difficult and good people aren't going into politics and I can understand why.
“If I knew then what I know now about how politics operates I don't know if I would have ... it's different, social media constantly on, everything is just so different.
“I have been in the Labour Party all my life, I was chair of Labour Youth, I sat on every committee you can in the party, and I've served at every level.
“I've been a junior and a senior minister, I've done it all, I'm not sure if I could have done much more.
“I'm happy and I'm content. There's a time once you know what's happening, you move on to doing other things, you move on to thinking about things in a different way.
“There's upside to this - I can bring my daughter to Manchester for a game. Before I would never have been able to do that.”
Mr Kelly added that he could now spend more time with his elderly parents and can attend more Tipperary matches.
“I can say hand on heart that I have no issue - the decision is made. I'm going to a new phase in my life and career, we move on, and I support the party.
“ I sat down with Ivana, I sat down with my colleagues, I told them everything as a status report on where we are in constituencies and what we're doing.
“I told them absolutely everything and I will continue to support them and do whatever I can because that's who I am - it's not going to change my politics.”
