Comparing the coalition's performance to Fianna Fail's time in power, he said: "We knew that you couldn't just let the protagonists get on with it, the Irish government had a duty to lead".
Despite his party's bleak look-out, Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin kept up his message that Fine Gael's election manifesto was neither credible nor costed.
Given last weekend's Sunday Times survey suggesting Sinn Fein is now attracting 25% support in comparison to Fianna Fail's 16%, the party will head into this referendum in confident form.
BBC: Referenda still on the agenda on both sides of the border
Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fail's leader and the next Irish prime minister, has already met Mr Adams.
Both Mr Cowen and Mr Reynolds were seen as being on Fianna Fail's "country and western wing" that opposed Mr Haughey.
Brian Cowen was, as expected, elected unopposed as Fianna Fail's new leader.
Fianna Fail's Eamon De Valera, whose 1937 constitution created the presidency, took part in the 1916 Easter Rising against the British but as prime minister he was also responsible for the execution of IRA members who endangered the new Irish state.
Though Fianna Fail's vote went up by just 0.2%, clever tactical voting produced a sharp rise in seats, while the tactically dimmer Progressive Democrats held their vote but halved their seats (though a resentful recount is going on over a Dublin seat lost to a Green).
Micheal Martin's Fianna Fail and John Gormley's Greens - the outgoing coalition - are performing appallingly - blamed for the over-heated and under-regulated construction boom that brought such havoc on Ireland's economy and banking system.
What explains Madonna's epic fail and Mr. Richie's surprise success?
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The appeals court said the school's claims of defamation fail because Trump University's practices were widely questioned nationwide.
The Mighty Eagle is the game's fail-safe option, a bird that destroys all it touches.
Mr Ahern launched his Fianna Fail party's campaign by arguing that a Yes vote was a vote for peace.
It's good to see the Fianna Fail party under Mr Ahern's leadership returned to power in Ireland.
UNCTAD's project on market access, notes that poor countries often fail to fill Europe's existing preferential import quotas.
On a trip to Asia last week, Clinton raised concerns about a softening of U.S. opposition to Iran developing a nuclear weapon when she commented that such a result would fail to strengthen Iran's regional influence.
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Mr Lenihan's Fianna Fail party paid a heavy price in elections earlier this year.
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Furthermore, the project could be delayed if the necessary sales contracts for Tangguh's gas fail to materialise.
Mr Ahern's Fianna Fail party has traditionally been the most nationalist of the southern Irish political parties.
Should the U.S. fail to reach a solution, federal income, dividend and capital-gains tax rates increase Jan 1.
Should Malaysia's troubles fail to respond to reflation, then restrictive policies and economic hardship will take their place.
Yet the actions of Europe's leaders fail to match their gloomy warnings.
If they fail, Alstom's bruised shares are sure to take another beating.
This ninth trading week of 2013 comes to a close with investors assessing the impact of steep budget cuts after fiscal talks in the U.S. fail.
If Europe's leaders fail to deal with the weaknesses in the single currency exposed by the crisis, the continent could face years of grindingly low growth.
United only by a determination to make Scotland's Parliament fail.
In an interview with the BBC, Marta Andreasen - who was ditched from her post as chief accountant at the European Commission in May - says the Commission's numbers fail even to meet minimum accounting standards.
More and more people, especially in suburban societies such as America's, were moving only between their first and second places, making extra stops only at alienating and anonymous locations such as malls, which in Mr Oldenburg's opinion fail as third places.
Bill Gething, an advisor to the RIBA, says the government's new so-called sustainable communities are often traditional car-led developments that fail to meet the government's rhetoric.
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