Fine Gael identifies potential win in 31 seats

FINE GAEL is targeting seats in the next general election in five out of the six constituencies where the Green Party has TDs.

Enda Kenny’s party has identified 31 possible gains in the next election, including eight seats in Dublin and five in Cork.

The list of targets presented to Fine Gael’s parliamentary party meeting last week is predictably dominated by seats lost by the party in 2002.

In that election, the four new seats picked up by the Greens all came at Fine Gael’s expense, while the party retained its two seats in constituencies where Fine Gael lost out.

Relations between the parties are tetchy at present as Green Party leader Trevor Sargent turned down an invitation from Mr Kenny to enter into talks on a pre-election pack after the Fine Gael leader mooted a possible Fine Gael/Labour coalition government without the Greens.

Rather than setting out to take seats off its potential coalition partners, Fine Gael argues it is instead going after Fianna Fáil, Progressive Democrats and Independents TDs.

Nonetheless, there is no guarantee of that outcome and the election report put together by Fine Gael strategists, Phil Hogan and Frank Flannery, includes five constituencies where the Greens hold seats - Cork South-Central, Dublin North, Dublin South, Dublin South-East and Dun Laoghaire.

Worryingly from the Green perspective, these five constituencies would all be regarded as truly realistic targets after the results of the local elections and the emergence of a series of credible candidates.

Despite losing a seat in the new constituency of Dublin Mid-West, also to the Greens, Fine Gael does not expect to win it back next time out, but this area is a key target for Labour.

The two constituencies where the number of TDs is being increased at the next election due to population growth, Kildare North and the new Meath East, are also not on the target list.

Neither is the Taoiseach’s constituency of Dublin Central where the late Jim Mitchell held a seat up to 2002, but Sinn Fein poses a major threat in this constituency already.

Aside from regaining the losses of 2002, the party is also looking at winning seats in Clare, Cork North-West, Galway West, Kerry South, Limerick East, Donegal North-East, Roscommon-South Leitrim, Sligo-North Leitrim, Tipperary North, Waterford and Wicklow.

Wexford was on the list of potential gains but was removed last week when Independent TD Dr Liam Twomey surprisingly joined Fine Gael and the party is looking to retain its two seats in the county.