Ahern to strike defiant note in face of critics

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will make a defiant defence of his record at today’s Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis, in an attempt to shore up party morale during a mid-term crisis that may damage its prospects in next year’s local and European elections.

Arriving in Killarney last night, he acknowledged that the last year had not been a good one for Fianna Fáil or the Government, and that the party’s stock in the opinion polls had suffered because of its policy decisions, and the recent controversies.

The party leadership is also expected to confront the mini-rebellion within the parliamentary party over the smoking ban, with Mr Ahern exhorting critics to stop “sniping from the sidelines.”