Dissident FF backbenchers to get dressing down

DISSIDENT Fianna Fáil backbenchers are tipped to get a severe ticking off at the party’s gathering in Sligo today.

In recent weeks, a number of backbenchers, including Ned O’Keeffe from Cork East and John McGuinness from Carlow-Kilkenny, have attacked the Government’s performance.

But following the Taoiseach’s defence of the Cabinet against the internal attacks this week, the backlash is set to escalate in Sligo, senior party sources said last night.

Aside from the internal dissent, Fianna Fáil will today attempt to shift the focus back to the economy against a backdrop of continuing fallout from the Laffoy controversy at its annual two-day seminar involving all the party’s TDs and senators.

Outlining the programme for the seminar, Fianna Fáil chief whip Mary Hanafin yesterday said its theme would be building the future, with a strong emphasis on the economy.

“We will focus on what we have done and what our priorities are going forward,” she said.

In particular, the party will look at the economy as it affects consumers, people living in the regions, and also from the perspective of investment in employment.

Fianna Fáil has begun to move away from the traditional sessions to place more emphasis on workshops and guest speakers in recent years.

The economist Dan McLaughlin, the author of the report on the Irish insurance industry Dorothea Dowling and an environmental consultant will give overviews on their particular areas of expertise. The guest speaker at the dinner tonight will be Pádraig Ó Céidigh, chief executive of Aer Árann.

Tomorrow’s plenary session which will explore the changing social agenda in Ireland will be chaired by psychologist Maureen Gaffney, who is also chairperson of the National Economic and Social Forum.

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will deliver opening and closing speeches and the party will be briefed on Ireland’s upcoming presidency of the EU by Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen.

At last year’s meeting, the party’s ministers came under fire from backbenchers who said they had been kept in the dark about Government cutbacks. In the interim, the party has moved to improve communications between ministers and TDs.

Meanwhile, Aer Rianta workers, angered at Transport Minister Seamus Brennan’s plans to break up the company, are planning to protest at today’s meeting in a bid to force TDs from constituencies around Dublin airport to state whether they are in favour of the minister’s plans.

SIPTU’s chief aviation specialist Dermot O’Loughlan said up to 50 members of the Irish Congress of Trade Union’s Irish Airports group would travel to the Sligo meeting today in protest at the proposed break up.