The Fianna Fail leader said the October Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll which put the party at 21%, up four points since the last such poll in May, is “a welcome trend,” but the party’s focus is on “restoring trust with the Irish people.”

“We are not that focussed on short term opinion polls,” said Micheal Martin TD.

He spoke to irishsmokefill, at Mary O’Rourke’s book launch in the National Library on October 18^th.  He said that they have a long journey ahead of them, and the party’s main focus is on the Local Elections 2014.

“That would be a major milestone for us, we are working to attract new people into the party, younger people, more women, in addition to those we already have,” said the Fianna Fail leader.

He said he regrets the abolition of town councils, as planned in the new government plan.

“Democracy is important and we should not be so willingly removing levels of democracy, because town councils are about people getting together and helping their community,” said Micheal Martin.  “We should not lose sight of that.”