Simon Coveney claims he is looking forward to the Fine Gael leadership contest.
Enda Kenny is expected to address the issue of his departure at the parliamentary party meeting next Wednesday.
It is still unknown when or if he will volunteer to step down, but Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney are the current favourites to replace him.
Housing Minister Coveney is promising to rebuild rural Ireland if he takes over.
"I'm looking forward to the leadership contest.
"It will give me an opportunity to really speak in a very direct way in terms of the kind of country that I think we need to aspire to create, but certainly a big part of that thinking is to rebalance Ireland and the dominance of Dublin at the moment is causing all sorts of problems," he said.