Kenny rubbishes McDowell claim that election winner doesn’t matter

FIANNA FÁIL’S focus is on “perks and Mercs” and not on running the country, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has said.

His party would be markedly different if returned to power at the next general election, he insisted.

Mr Kenny was reacting to a suggestion by Justice Minister Michael McDowell that it did not matter whether voters opted for Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael next time out.

On Friday, Mr McDowell told Progressive Democrat colleagues the most “important party in a government is not the senior party but the junior party”, as the latter provided the direction.

“The real choice which the Irish people must consider at the next election is not the choice between Bertie and Enda,” Mr McDowell said. “The real choice they must consider is between the doctrinaire leftists of Labour, Sinn Féin and the Greens on the one hand and the economically liberal Progressive Democrats on the other.”

But Mr Kenny, speaking at the Young Fine Gael conference in Co Tipperary on Saturday, rubbished that notion. There were clear differences between his party and Fianna Fáil, he said, differences which would be noticed if Fine Gael were returned to office.

“Our interest is the public interest. In the last two months, what has been the one thing that has excited Fianna Fáil? It’s been the debacle over Sile De Valera and Ivor Callely,” he said.

“And irrespective of whether you have 400 people lying on trolleys, irrespective of long waiting lists, irrespective of the carnage on the roads where you’ve had promises for nine years about penalty points and random breath testing and all the rest of it, the fact of the matter is that they only got excited about internal perks and Mercs.”

A new opinion poll published yesterday suggested Fine Gael could be gaining some ground on Fianna Fáil. The Sunday Business Post/Red C poll showed Fianna Fáil on 35% (down 2% since January), Fine Gael at 25% (up 2%), Labour on 12% (down 1%), Sinn Féin on 10% (up 1%), the Green Party on 5% (down 2%), the PDs on 4% (up 1%) and Independents on 9% (up 1%).

However, all those changes were within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus three points, meaning none of the parties can read too much into them.

Meanwhile, Mr Kenny confirmed he would approach former Mayo and Galway football manager John O’Mahony shortly to see if he would be interested in running for the party.

Fine Gael strategists want Mr O’Mahony to run in the Mayo constituency, where Mr Kenny and Michael Ring currently hold seats. They believe Mr O’Mahony would offer the party an excellent chance of taking a third seat in the five-seater constituency. The strategists are anxiously awaiting word from several of their MEPs as to whether they will run for the Dáil next time out. Simon Coveney, Mairead McGuinness and Gay Mitchell have yet to state their intentions.

Mr Kenny said he had not spoken to the MEPs, but added:

“No doubt they have considered, and are considering what they think is in their own best interests and probably in the best interests of the party.”