Fine Gael leader Simon Harris insists his party is not a "sinking ship" and he hopes to win back former voters.

Speaking in Galway ahead of his party's Ard Fheis, Minister Harris said those who say Fine Gael is in decline are wrong.

“People who wish to talk that way about Fine Gael are unlikely to vote for Fine Gael,” he said.

“But there are many people who do vote for this party and… I’ll be speaking to people who vote for Fine Gael and I’ll be thanking them.

“I’ll be thanking them and I’ll be committing to redoubling our efforts and our work in Government over the next 11 months.

“There’ll be people who used to vote for us and for whatever reason now don’t and I’ll be asking them to come back to us.”

Retirements

So far, 11 sitting Fine Gael TDs have announced their intention to stand down at the next election.

It is a phenomenon Minister Harris said he understands.

“People can retire and there are many people in the Fine Gael party who are retiring who have served our country extraordinarily well - and their constituency - over an extraordinarily long period of time,” he said.

“There’s other people who have their own personal reasons - and that’s okay - politics can be gruelling on people, it can be gruelling on families.

“People can come into politics, they can serve and then they can decide to leave.”

Dáil Éireann will vote on Minister Harris’ nomination as Taoiseach on Tuesday.

Main image: Simon Harris at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis. Picture by: Newstalk