FF ministers divided over coalition with Labour

FIANNA FÁIL’S election strategies are causing growing tension among senior ministers.

Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan, one of the sharpest strategists in the party, has criticised efforts by some ministers to lay the ground for a coalition with Labour next time out.

Mr Brennan, who was twice national director of elections for the party, says that is too defeatist a message to send the electorate. “The Fianna Fáil-PD alliance is there. It has managed the country continually (since 1997), and we should offer it for re-election. And I think we should not get distracted with other combinations, because that’s to give up and assume we can’t get re-elected.”