McDaid, who is expected to be returned to the Dail for Donegal North-East, said he personally believed the electorate wanted a "firm hand on the rudder".

"I'm not blaming anybody, but it's my personal opinion that once we made that ardfheis speech, we [FF] were playing catch-up from there on in. We were literally in the pool with the rest of the fish and we were swimming around with everybody else and we confused the electorate, " he told the Sunday Tribune.

McDaid also suggested there were far too many promises from all the political parties. "We used to focus in previous elections on four or five specific issues and I think we're a little bit all over the shop right now."

The former tourism minister questioned Fianna Fail's proposal to abolish stamp duty for all first-time buyers.

"I think we should have remained firm and said, 'if it's not broken, what's the problem? What's the reason for fixing it?' With the stamp duty issue, we became one of all the others."

McDaid was also critical of Michael McDowell for putting "his foot into it" on stamp duty and said the Tanaiste's "flipflopping" two weekends ago had "weakened Fianna Fail's resolve for the PDs" and cost the PDs "quite a bit in transfers". However, he strongly backed the Taoiseach in the controversy over his personal finances.

"I've known the man for many years and I would say the least interest that Bertie Ahern has is in anything to do with monetary matters. . . I do have every confidence that all this will pass over, " he said, adding that he believed Fianna Fail would be in government again after the election.