O'Rourke to meet Curran over FF leader

GOVERNMENT CHIEF whip John Curran will meet former minister Mary O’Rourke in the coming days to discuss her proposal for a special meeting on the leadership of Fianna Fáil.

Mrs O’Rourke, TD for Longford-Westmeath, wrote to Mr Curran this week outlining her idea that those interested in leading the party should be allowed to put their names forward at a gathering of deputies and senators early next month.

Mr Curran replied to her yesterday.

“The letter was more comprehensive than just a one-liner request for a meeting.

“There were significant issues. She acknowledges the programme that needs to be done in terms of giving legislative effect to the budget and in that context I’ll meet her over the next day or so,” Mr Curran said.

Mrs O’Rourke said yesterday she would support her nephew, Brian Lenihan, for the future leadership of the party if his “health could bear it”.

Mrs O’Rourke said that Mr Lenihan was no longer receiving treatment for his pancreatic cancer and had not done so since last summer.

She told RTÉ’s 2fm presenter Ryan Tubridy that Mr Lenihan’s radiation and chemotherapy treatments finished in “June or July”.

Since then, his cancer remained but had “neither developed nor diminished”.

Mr Lenihan said during the summer that his cancer had stabilised.

Mrs O’Rourke said her nephew’s state of health was her “first waking thought” and the reason why she worried about his ability to take on the Fianna Fáil leadership in the event of the Taoiseach stepping down.

She expressed surprised that the letter she sent to Mr Curran, which had only been seen by her secretary, calling for such a meeting was made public.

However, she believed there would be “no merit” at this stage in changing the leadership of the party because Mr Cowen would have taken the party so far if he got the budget and the National Recovery Plan through the Dáil.

Mrs O’Rourke said she was interested in standing again for the Dáil in the coming general election, but would talk it over with her family at Christmas.

She said she had no interest in standing for the Presidency, adding that she would be “appalled by the strictures” of the role.