Micheál Martin says he will lead Fianna Fáil into next general election

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he will lead Fianna Fáil into the next general election.

Martin was under pressure from members of his own party fol­low­ing a dis­astrous pres­id­en­tial elec­tion cam­paign in which his chosen can­did­ate, Jim Gavin, with­drew from the race.

“I under­stand fully the anger of mem­bers of the party and the dis­may at how things tran­spired,” he said. Mar­tin said he is now determ­ined to put a “very chal­len­ging” year behind him.

In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Martin criticised Donald Trump's immigration policies.

“The over-reach in com­munit­ies is something that is in my view, over-the top com­pletely, and I am glad to see it being pulled back some­what now,” Mar­tin said.

“I don’t believe that put­ting ICE into com­munit­ies and root­ing people out of houses is something I would sup­port or be in favour of.”

The Taoiseach will be in attendance at the White House for St Patrick's Day, despite calls from the opposition to boycott the annual event.

Social Demo­crats leader Holly Cairns said yes­ter­day that the Taoiseach must show Ire­land does “not bow down to bul­lies” when he meets Mr Trump.

Mar­tin said his approach is to be “care­ful with the national interest” and “not to lose the head imme­di­ately when something that looks ter­rible is announced”.

“Polit­ic­ally enga­ging with people is not an endorse­ment of the stance that they have, or of their own polit­ics. We all have dif­fer­ent polit­ics, it can’t be our way or no way."

He also defen­ded his decision to visit Mr Trump in the White House on St Patrick’s Day, say­ing there isn’t a single European leader who would turn down the invit­a­tion.

He said he would have no issue with the US leader address­ing the Dáil and will reit­er­ate an invit­a­tion for him to visit Ire­land.