FIANNA Fáil has flatly rejected the latest membership pitch from presidential election runner-up Peter Casey.
The Derry-born businessman, who finished second behind Michael D Higgins in the race for Áras an Uachtaráin, said he plans to set up a new party if he is prevented from joining Fianna Fáil.
Mr Casey was initially an outside contender in the presidential election but his vote surged late in the campaign following critical comments about the Travelling community and welfare recipients.
His support, which had been hovering around 1 per cent in some opinion polls prior to the contentious remarks, rocketed to 23 per cent in the election to secure an unexpected second place finish behind incumbent Mr Higgins, who romped home for a second term with more than 55 per cent of the vote.
After the election result, Mr Casey said he plans to join Fianna Fáil and run as a candidate in Donegal at the next general election.
He told the Sunday Independent: "I am joining Fianna Fail. I intend to run in the next general election in Donegal.
"And I am going to become a Fianna Fail TD - with a view to becoming Taoiseach at the head of a renewed and revitalised Fianna Fail."
However Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin dismissed Mr Casey's overtures, saying the presidential candidate had failed to covey "any clear coherent sense of ideas".
Speaking today on RTÉ's Today with Miriam show, the presidential election runner-up said he would set up a new party if Fianna Fail refused to admit him as a member.
"They definitely need someone like Peter Casey to shake it up," he said.
"I'm 100 per cent serious – if the consensus after talking to them is they don't want me, I'll form a new party and I'll call it the New Fianna Fail."
A Fianna Fáil spokesman responded to the radio interview by echoing the party leader's words.
"Mr Casey made clear during the campaign that he has zero allegiance to Fianna Fáil – we will not be facilitating any personal crusades of his," he said.
