FIANNA Fail leader Micheál Martin warned he does not anticipate any dramatic "lurch to the right" in Irish politics after the astonishing success of Peter Casey in the Presidential election.

The Derry businessman soared from just 2pc in the polls to earn 23.25pc of votes in the election within one week of his controversial remarks about the Traveller community and the operation of Ireland's social welfare system.

"I heard him (Mr Casey) describe himself as a compassionate socialist and a capitalist in the same sentence," Mr Martin said.

"So it seems this morning he was heading to the middle ground very quickly."

"The Irish people are different to the US system - we are different in how we conduct our politics."

"That said, we always have to be careful about how the easy sound byte can take precedence over substance - that is always the risk."

"But I don't get any sense of a lurch to the right in Irish politics. This is a Presidential election and people may feel a bit more liberty to vote in certain directions but will vote differently in a general election."

Mr Martin said it was also clear people reacted against the sense that there has been too much political correctness in Ireland.

"The sentiment that is expressed - people will take note of that, there is too much political correctness around and people don't want to say what is on their mind.

"That struck a chord with people - I have heard it all week. There was a very sudden (change) - look at the opinion polls with Peter Casey. He was on 2pc and then suddenly he is on 20pc?

"That warns us about opinion polls.

"But also there was a substantial change in the last week or two in relation to Peter Casey's candidacy.

"We do have to be extremely cautious in drawing implications from a Presidential election and applying them to a general, local or European election.

"It is fair to say Peter Casey has performed very well from a personal and individual perspective.

"It is a very significant vote for him," he continued.

"My own sense of it, and one has to be careful about over-interpreting, that there is an element within that substantial vote of a kick-back - people are not happy with everything in society.

"There are serious issues out there.

"He clearly got a platform for these issues in relation to Travellers which then enabled him to get a better profile and publicity.

"The sound byte part is easy - the actual substance part of the follow through is much more difficult.

"I was listening to Peter (Casey) this morning and I didn't get any sense of a coherent set of ideas he wants to put forward on this.

"I certainly interpret the result as a certain kick-back from the electorate that has to be looked at.

"But we can't jump to conclusions either. This is a Presidential election, there was a low turnout, there was a sense well in advance that Michael D Higgins was going to win it.

"Other things came into play about how people were going to vote.

"I worked with the Traveller community as an Education Minister and as a Health Minister.

"It is a hard slog, not going out demonising people and trying to do something about (the problems) in a structured way - improving health and education outcomes for people. That is the hard part," the Fianna Fáil leader added.

The Fianna Fáil leader warned that the local and general elections will be very different.

"I think the local elections will be completely different - there will be multiple battles in the local elections. There will be different issues," he said.

"There will be different personalities and that will determine the outcome. The European Elections will be somewhat different because they have become somewhat of a Presidential style election where the personality and profile of the candidate matters.

"From experience, drawing conclusions from Presidential elections and that they have implications for other types of elections is probably not grounded in substance.

"It is a different kettle of fish," he added.

Mr Martin said the Presidential debates over the past month were poor with the focus in one debate on the minute movements of a Government jet - a stark warning that things weren't going well for the challengers.

"The campaign was sapping - the energy was sapping out of it half way through. Let's call a spade a spade."

Mr Martin also said the key factor of the campaign was that voters were very happy with how President Michael D Higgins represented Ireland over the past seven years.

"I want to congratulate Michael D Higgins on an outstanding performance - he has got a massive vote," he said.

"It is a massive endorsement of his Presidency. That is the significant outcome of this election.

"I think it reflects my view at the outset of this election that Michael D Higgins was best placed to lead the country because of the manner in which he had carried out his duties.

"Irish people like to see their country represented overseas in a dignified manner.

"That is why Irish people have voted in such huge numbers for Michael D Higgins.

"He was the dominant influence on this campaign - everything else was a sideshow.

"If we reflect on this campaign, it was the dominance of Michael D Higgins and the inability of anyone else to get near him that was the key."

Online Editors