Parties adjourn but work will continue

The Dáil has finished for summer but all the parties have ample food for thought, says Paul O’Brien.

THE election is over, the Dáil term has finished and parliamentary activity will not resume until late September.

But there will be much for the political parties to ponder over the summer.

The opposition parties will have to discover some appetite for the prospect of five more years of powerlessness.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, for one, seems distinctly unenthused at the prospect. Asked by radio show host Gerry Ryan earlier this week how he was settling back into the Dáil following the election, Mr Rabbitte replied: “Oh God, it’s tough, it’s tough. Five more years on the sterile opposition benches looking across at Willie O’Dea is almost more than any normal man should be asked to bear.”

While the reference to the defence minister was tongue-in-cheek, the description of the opposition benches as “sterile” certainly was not.

The opposition has the important task of keeping the government honest, but Mr Rabbitte knows opposition life is, generally, thankless and somewhat futile. So finding the appetite for five more years of such futility is going to be difficult.

More difficult, however, will be figuring out the way to break Fianna Fáil’s relentless grip on power. Labour will have to decide whether to continue its alliance with Fine Gael. The alliance doesn’t seem to have benefited Labour: rather than gaining traction in the election, it actually lost a seat: the party’s Dáil representation falling from 21 TDs to 20.

It will take longer than the summer for Labour to decide upon electoral strategy, of course, but the inquest has already started.

Fine Gael is in healthier shape, having gained 20 seats in the election in a very impressive showing. But now party leader Enda Kenny has to figure out how to repeat that trick, and win even more seats next time out. But Fine Gael now has to look at the local elections in two years’ time — blood new candidates, raise the profiles of existing councillors — to build the platform for 2012.

Mr Kenny also has to ensure that nobody within the party rests on the laurels of this year’s election success and presumes the hard work has now been done. Keeping his party vitalised and focused with the general election a long distance off will take some work. But at least he starts the task with a buoyant, seemingly united party.

Sinn Féin, on the other hand, is showing signs of internal dissent following its disastrous election campaign. Losing a single seat — falling from five to four — doesn’t seem a disaster. But this was supposed to be the election where Sinn Féin proved it was the coming force in Irish politics — and that didn’t happen. Party strategists spoke in advance of the election of winning several more seats, maybe even reaching double figures. Instead, the party now has to review its own strategy, and if Sinn Féin’s weekly paper, An Phoblacht, is anything to go by, that will be a heated process.

In recent weeks, An Phoblacht has featured party members questioning the election strategy, the perceived dominance of the Northern wing over the party, and even the leadership.

The Government parties, too, will have much on their minds.

Bedding into government has, unsurprisingly, been a difficult process for the Greens. Environment Minister John Gormley, for example, has come under fire over the proposed routing of the M3 and the plans to locate an incinerator in his own constituency. The party as a whole, meanwhile, has become the favoured target of the opposition. Sick of seeing potshots bounce off Fianna Fáil, the opposition has made the Greens the new piñata. The compromises the Greens have had to make to enter coalition with Fianna Fáil gave the opposition plenty of ammunition. If things continue like this there is a real danger the Greens will become the lightning rod for public dissatisfaction with the Government.

The Progressive Democrats are back in government, but that’s small solace for the near electoral wipe-out they suffered. The party has to find a new leader and a strategy to revive its fortunes, which is going to be a very long haul indeed.

Of all the parties, Fianna Fáil should be the most content heading into the summer but there are headaches looming, Mr Ahern’s appearance at the Mahon Tribunal being one. It will be embarrassing at the very least — and politically fatal at worst — if Mr Ahern cannot reconcile his account of his personal finances and the tribunal’s investigations into same.

The parties have plenty to mull over between now and September.