Upbeat Kenny targets 30 Dáil seats

ENDA KENNY was ambitiously contemplating life in an Alternative Government with Labour but without the Green Party yesterday.

The Fine Gael leader said he has identified 30 target seats, which he says his party can win in the next general election, and played up his party’s historic coalition links with the Labour Party.

Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary party seminar in Kilkenny yesterday, Mr Kenny said his party was now on an election campaign footing.

“Obviously it is difficult to predict the voting patterns that are going to emerge in the next general election. We are not targeting any individual party seats. What we want is to gain ourselves. But obviously if Fine Gael are to form a Government with the Labour Party, both parties have to win seats,” he said.

Setting out his election stall, Mr Kenny said FG was preparing for the fight for Government and was really serious about the challenge.

Focusing on the relationship with Labour and the recent agreement at local government level with the party, he said he looked forward to working closely with Pat Rabbitte.

If Fine Gael was to achieve its ambitious targets of bringing its numbers of TDs up from 32 to 62 at the next election and Labour was also to build upon its representation of 21 TDs, the coalition would not need the Green Party.

But Mr Kenny denied that he was excluding the Green Party from Alternative Government.

“I have said on a number of occasions that Fine Gael and Labour and like-minded parties would work towards setting out an alternative political platform. I haven’t mentioned them because in the context of the Mullingar accord, the Greens don’t have any representative on Westmeath County Council,” he said.

“The common denominator that we have with the Green Party is that Trevor Sargent has clearly said that he would have nothing to do with Fianna Fáil in Government and, on that basis, I would be very happy to talk to Trevor Sargent.”

Although not wanting to list off the constituencies where the party is targeting seats, Mr Kenny said Fine Gael political director Phil Hogan TD and party strategist Frank Flannery will be giving a detailed presentation on the plan to TDs, senators and MEPs today.

The party will also be reviewing its local and European election performance today.

Former Wexford Independent TD Dr Liam Twomey was formally admitted to the Fine Gael parliamentary party yesterday.