FIANNA FÁIL’S BARRY Cowen has described the party’s handling of the fallout from the collapse of Jim Gavin’s Áras campaign as “a clusterbleep, we’ll say”. 

The Midlands-Northwest MEP deployed the PG-friendly term at a press event with Irish reporters at the EU Parliament in Brussels. 

His comments come ahead of tonight’s weekly meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, where it’s expected the disastrous presidential campaign will once again be a topic of conversation.

It emerged in recent days that an internal report into the campaign would be delayed. The trio tasked with heading up the review have yet to speak to Taoiseach Micheál Martin – with that interview now expected to take place tomorrow. 

Cowen said the mistakes made in the approach to the former Dublin GAA manager’s campaign had been “acknowledged, I appreciate, by everybody concerned”. 

He said that as part of their work the review authors would assess “if there was anybody more accountable than anybody else and what sanctions may arise – if any”. 

'A clusterbleep'.

That's how MEP Barry Cowen termed FF's handling of the Jim Gavin affair, speaking in Brussels this morning. pic.twitter.com/8SVEoqBwPr

— Daragh Brophy (@DaraghBroph) November 12, 2025

Three parliamentary party members – Tom Brabazon, Eamon Scanlon and Margaret Murphy O’Connor – are heading up the review process. 

It’s for them to decide who should be held accountable, Cowen said. 

Asked for his view on whether Martin should remain at the helm of Fianna Fáil, he said the Taoiseach remains leader “at the moment” and is committed to leading the party into the next election. He said there was nothing to contradict that from his perspective – “unless issues or … events, dear boy, can happen”.

Also speaking in the Belgian capital, Ireland’s EU commissioner Michael McGrath yesterday gave his full-throated endorsement to Martin remaining on as leader for Ireland’s presidency of the European Union next year – and beyond. 

The former finance minister said he didn’t anticipate that Martin would depart the top job anytime soon and that his former Cork constituency rival would bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the role of leading the six-month Irish presidency. 

Asked this morning if he agreed with McGrath, Cowen said there was no denying Martin’s experience.

“He managed the country through Covid which was a huge undertaking and would be vitally important to the smooth running of the presidency.”

He added: “But look, irrespective of who the Dáil puts in place they should be competent enough to do that.”

The EU presidency, he insisted, was “not a time where we can realise a wish list by any means – you act as an honest broker”.

It was put to him that his responses on the leadership issue did not, perhaps, amount to a ringing endorsement of Martin’s leadership.

He responded: “How more endorsing can I be?”

Nitrates

Cowen won’t be in attendance at tonight’s parliamentary party meeting – but made an appearance at last week’s gathering to brief his colleagues on negotiations around the nitrates derogation, which he said was a key focus of his current work as an MEP.

The derogation is a measure that allows Irish farmers to use more nitrogen than their EU counterparts and keep denser cow herds.

Around 7,000 Irish farmers will be impacted when the current agreement around the measure expires at the end of the year. Agriculture minister Martin Heydon said last week that Ireland was currently the only country with the prospect of having a derogation beyond 31 December and that recent dealings with the European Commission on the issue had been “very intense”.

Cowen has insisted any deal must be workable for farmers. He said this morning that his request for a meeting with the Taoiseach on the issue had been acknowledged, but that none had been scheduled as yet.