The Fianna Fáil leader has written to the Taoiseach urging him to agree on a date for the next General Election.
Micheál Martin has called Leo Varadkar to “step in and give some certainty.”
Speaking to On the Record with Gavan Reilly this morning, he said Easter is the natural time to hold the election.
“In a number of letters, I have made it clear that Easter is the natural end of this Dáil,” he said.
“I don’t think it is credible that it would reconvene after Easter.”
He said last week’s UK election means that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement will likely be passed by the end of January and insisted it is “not tenable” that the Dáil would continue “continue on an indefinite week-to-week basis” after it returns in the middle of January.”
He said setting down the date will allow for an orderly wind-down of the Dáil rather than leave it vulnerable to the “sudden shock” of a motion of no confidence.
“What I am doing is giving leadership on the issue,” he said.
“I am not hanging around waiting for the next opportunistic motion to go down.
“I think we have two choices for the Spring session. One: you wrap it up or, two: you say, 'here are some basic practical things that will help people and then have the election.'
“Because we do need an election.”
You can listen back to the full conversation here:
LISTEN BACK: Micheal Martin tells me that there is no point coming back after Christmas if the Dáil doesn’t have a fixed date to dissolve itself https://t.co/8L3RcKETuI #OnTheRecord @NewstalkFM
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) December 15, 2019
