FF set to ‘refine’ selection strategy

FIANNA FÁIL has admitted it will need to “refine” its selection strategy after bitter complaints from party members about how candidates were chosen for Friday’s local elections.

The party opted for a centralised selection process this year under which candidates were chosen after an interview by headquarters rather than through local selection conventions.

The party’s goal was to ensure the best prospects were chosen, thereby avoiding a repeat of the 2004 elections where a number of weak candidates were fielded and failed to win seats.

But the interview process caused a lot of anger, with several members resigning from the party after failing to secure a nomination.

At the party’s ard fheis earlier this year, members voted to review selection strategy for future elections, and Fianna Fáil general secretary Sean Dorgan admitted to this paper that some people were “unhappy” with the interview process.

While stressing that just two of the 26 organisation-related motions tabled by members at the ard fheis concerned the selection process, he acknowledged the interview had caused “debate” within the party.

“It’s caused debate. There are some people who are unhappy with it,” he said.

“Clearly it is something that... we’ve got to look at and the one thing we have said is that this process is a once-off process. We need to move to a model that’s an inclusive model which involves our membership and our structures effectively, and I think the Taoiseach has made that quite clear.”

Mr Dorgan said the Taoiseach had given a commitment at the ard fheis to review the process and see how it could be improved.

It is believed this could involve a hybrid model including greater co-operation between party headquarters and local branches, but the issue won’t be debated until after the elections.

Mr Dorgan defended the interview process, saying it had been used by the party to good effect prior to these elections. He also pointed out the interview was one of the last steps in a “multi-phase process” to select candidates. Headquarters had consulted rigorously with branches and members in advance, he said. According to the party, the input of members “in every area, both at meetings throughout the country and through written submission to the National Constituencies Committee, was crucial in facilitating decisions to be made”. Mr Dorgan said there was always a degree of upset with any selection process, as it necessarily meant the omission of some candidates.

“If you go back to 2004, go back to the 2002 general election, go back to the 1999 local elections, it really doesn’t matter what selection process you use – you will always have disappointed candidates who will opt for an independent route.

“For instance, we would have adopted the selection convention model in 1999 and 2002. A number of people went independent – in a competitive party, you’re going to have that.”

He refused to predict how the party would fare on Friday, other than say it would keep fighting. “We never predict election results. In 2007, we were written off by a lot of the pundits, but we kept going to the... last hour, and we’re going to keep going to the last hour on June 5,” he said.