Billy Kelleher calls on Fianna Fáil to meet sooner than planned to discuss presidential candidate
Mr Kelleher added that without a meeting convened soon, Fianna Fáil TDs, senators and MEPs will not meet in person until mid-September at the earliest.
The party has yet to name its candidate for the election, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying earlier this summer that he would take "soundings" from the party over the course of this month.
However, Mr Kelleher said waiting until the party's pre-Oireachtas think-in in September to meet would be a mistake. He has written to the party's chairman Brendan Smith to ask that a meeting be convened.
'To my mind, this is too late in the day for the people who will ultimately be tasked with selecting a party candidate to meet to discuss the issue.
'In my opinion, Fianna Fáil, the largest party in the Dáil, the Seanad and in local government, should be actively involved in either running its own candidate or facilitating a candidate that represents our values and beliefs as a political movement,' said Mr Kelleher.
The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party will decide the party's candidate, it is understood, but some have raised concerns about how much time they would have to run a campaign if that does not happen until the middle of next month.
Party sources pointed to the fact that the Fine Gael candidate - either sitting MEP Sean Kelly or former social protection minister Heather Humphreys - and the only candidate currently with the requisite support to be on the ballot, Galway West independent TD Catherine Connolly, are well established names.
"If we want to run someone like Mary McAleese, we need time to introduce them to the public, especially if Heather (Humphreys) is the candidate," one TD said.
"It is going to be very tough if that person has no name recognition themselves."
The party has not put forward a candidate for the presidency since 1997, when Mary McAleese would go on to win, but given its position as the largest party in the Oireachtas, TDs and senators believe there should be a Fianna Fáil candidate on the ballot.
Mary Hanafin, a member of the Brian Cowen government which was in power until 2011, sent an email to the parliamentary party asking for support in seeking a nomination, but many within the party were quick to reject that notion.
Earlier this month, Mr Martin ruled himself out of the race, saying he was committed to leading the Government.
"No disrespect to the presidency or anything, but I gave commitments to the people that I would serve in Dail Éireann for the next five years and that is what I'm going to do."
He said Fianna Fáil would decide on what it would do in the presidential election in the coming weeks, and he was 'taking soundings' from the parliamentary party on the matter.
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