Mr John Bruton has insisted he is "very confident" of retaining the Fine Gael leadership, saying he had no intention of resigning over the result of a "fickle" opinion poll.
Admitting his party was "in crisis", he said they must show themselves to be "a serious party, a party that's resolute and clear in adhering to its decisions and knows where it's going. I certainly know where I'm going."
Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Mr Bruton criticised Mr Michael Noonan and Mr Jim Mitchell for reopening the leadership issue at a time when, he said, the Government was under pressure. Hinting that he would consider removing them from his front bench, he said the two were now "in a difficult position". He would be discussing this with them "face to face".
"The Government has to answer questions over why they are proposing to increase spending limits on elections so that people can buy elections with donations from big business, questions about their handling of Liam Lawlor's situation and questions about Minister Ned O'Keeffe's situation.
"And the very week when all that is coming up I think it is a bit of a distraction that an issue that was settled just a few weeks ago is being reopened again but I'm quite happy to face that."
He said he had been endorsed by three to one by the parliamentary party just a few weeks ago. "One has to question anybody who accepted a result [of a vote] that was taken only a few weeks ago wanting to reopen it again - and reopen it again particularly in a week when the Government has so many questions to answer.
"If people have problems accepting democratic votes that's a problem they have to deal with in their own way and they have to explain."
Although Mr Mitchell spoke to Mr Bruton by telephone on Saturday night, Mr Bruton said nobody had asked him to stand down. "They wouldn't waste their time. I'm somebody who has been through this before. I believe I have the support of the people who supported me so few weeks ago.
"I'm sorry that two individuals have a problem they didn't have the means or willingness to express on a previous occasion only a few weeks ago. I'm not standing down. Some people who didn't stand up on that occasion are standing up on this occasion but I don't think there's much point in paying too much attention to people who keep wanting to reopen questions that have been settled."
Insisting he was the person best qualified to lead the party into the next election, he pointed out that under his leadership, Fine Gael had won nine extra seats in the last election. He said he had already been Taoiseach and could say to the electorate that he had "done the job and done it well, and that's something no one else in the Fine Gael party at parliamentary level is in a position to say, and that's a big asset for Fine Gael, I believe, facing into any election."
Referring to his and his party's poor showing in the Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll results published on Friday, he said such polls were "superficial, and they are fickle".
In "real elections" he said, he had done very well. The party had won a tremendous result in last June's Tipperary South by-election, he said. A recent opinion poll in the Mayo constituency, where people were offered "real names on a ballot paper", had shown the party increasing its support by 9 per cent.
"We've done polls throughout the country where with real names on real ballot papers we've done twice as well in some cases as this recent survey would suggest."
Asked if he would resign if Fine Gael lost the next election, he said: "I intend to win the next election - that's the united intention of everyone in Fine Gael. I'm not looking beyond that. If that doesn't happen, obviously we'll look at that when it comes."
