Fine Gael election fears amid ‘stampede for the exit’ by several TDs

At least two other party TDs are also known to be weighing up their options, with health and age significant factors.

Meanwhile, Mr Ring admitted he hasn’t yet decided whether to run again after Galway East TD Ciarán Cannon became the 10th party TD to signal his departure.

Contacted by the Irish Independent last night, Mr Ring (70) said: “At the moment I’m going again [contesting the election], but I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other. And that’s all I’m saying.”

Fine Gael members yesterday admitted to low morale in the ranks amid speculation that more government party members will step down before the next election.

Deputies privately conceded that it was a blow that the number of departing colleagues – 10 who won seats in 2020 – had now reached double figures.

“It is one after another,” said one, while a colleague said: “It has an effect, all these announcements. I’ll put it like this, you ask yourself, ‘Do they know something I don’t?’.”

Meanwhile, the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting tonight is set for “fireworks” amid significant annoyance with the leadership.

One senior source told the Irish Independent that Leo Varadkar was “in for a hard come-down from the high of his trip to the States”.

There is palpable anger over the Government’s handling of the referendum and to a lesser extent, the parachuting of “celebrity” candidates to run for the party has also caused annoyance.

The news former top jockey Nina Carberry will seek the Fine Gael nomination to run in the European Parliament elections has had a mixed response from party members.

One senior government source said there was a high level of discontent. “A lot of people are sick of these celebrity candidates being foisted upon the party. They have no political pedigree,” they said. “People are not happy.

“We got a thumping with the referendum result and the feeling is that it was entirely deserved.”

Many Fine Gael TDs were unavailable to comment when contacted by the Irish Independent, while some insisted there was no cause for concern over “natural wastage”.

One said: “Every election is a churn-over of what has gone before. You need a blend of youth and experience.”

Another said the long careers of many now-departing TDs “shows what a success the party has been, and now it needs to renew itself and rebuild”.

Others said the referendums had members “worried”, “spooked” or “wary” about the local and ­European elections in seven weeks’ time.

“Major reverses there too, and we really are in trouble for the general [election],” said a source on condition of anonymity. But a highly placed party source dismissed what he called “cut-and-paste” stories about Fine Gael in crisis, saying he had been hearing the same since 2013, if not before.

“We’ll have new candidates where old ones are not running again. Some are very strong and experienced vote-getters and will be TDs within the next year,” he said.

Examples offered were James ­Geoghegan in Dublin Bay South, who lost to Ivana Bacik in the by-election in 2021, John Paul O’Shea or Eileen Lynch in Cork north-west, Senator John Cummins in Waterford and Senator Garret Ahearn in Tipperary South.

“The party needs renewal and a changing of the guard. But one person’s crisis is another’s opportunity,” said a member.

Some members wondered, meanwhile, whether the Taoiseach had signalled some concern about the “stampede for the exit”, as one put it, because of Mr Cannon’s revelation on RTÉ radio that Mr Varadkar had attempted to persuade him to stay on.

“It would suggest that he knows himself that a whole lot of TDs riding off into the sunset is not good PR, even though they would all have their own reasons for doing so,” said one TD.

Mr Cannon said he approached the Taoiseach in mid-January to have an initial discussion. “We had a number of meetings since then, and, to be fair, he gave me the time and the space to make the decision. Ultimately, I made the final decision about four or five days ago.”

Anticipating colleagues’ anxiety, Mr Cannon said: “There’s a lot of nonsense spoken about why people make this particular decision. In any other walk of life, it’s perfectly acceptable for somebody to say, ‘I’ve given this 20 years’, or in some cases 30 or 40 years.

“I’ve decided it’s time to move on. And there’s no other deeper meaning. But somehow in the world of politics, it seems there’s a kind of an additional impact attached to it. I don’t see that right. Everybody in life has to move on.”