Keeping everyone on board will be a challenge
The first, involving about 20 students arguing against third-level fees, resulted in minor scuffles with gardaí as the students attempted to block the road leading into the hotel.
A second, more dignified protest saw about 15 Roscommon campaigners protesting against the downgrading of hospital services in the county — an issue on which the Taoiseach broke a pre-election pledge.
Neither of the protests was significant enough to throw Fine Gael’s conference off-course.
Nonetheless, they served as a reminder to the party of the rough times that lie ahead.
In previous years, the protests were outside Fianna Fáil conferences, and it was that party which had to make the tough calls.
Now it is Fine Gael’s turn to be in the firing line, and the trouble will begin in earnest with the December Budget.
Up to now, Fine Gael has adapted comfortably to power, and its first few months in office — aside from a handful of issues such as Roscommon — have been relatively smooth.
But come the budget, the Government will truly take ownership of the tough decisions for the first time.
While the Coalition did announce billions more for the banks shortly after taking office, such an announcement is easier to make than a budget in which people are hit with more taxes or see their welfare payments cut.
The budget will be the first real test. And Fine Gael might find it just as difficult to sell its contents to its own parliamentary party members as to the public.
Hence, how the party communicates internally will be as crucial as how it communicates externally in the run-up to budget day.
The huge size of the Fine Gael parliamentary party means that there is an awful lot of TDs, in particular, with very little to do other than constituency work.
These backbenchers are already getting it in the neck from constituents about various issues.
Rural TDs say that Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s plans for septic tank registration charges are causing significant unease.
Add to that issues such as education cuts and the downgrading of local hospital services and an unpleasant picture emerges for backbenchers.
There’ll be no shortage of constituents who will want them to vote against various Government measures in the months ahead.
The size of the Government’s majority in the Dáil means that, theoretically, both Fine Gael and Labour could afford to lose a few rebellious backbenchers and still comfortably win votes.
Fine Gael has already lost Denis Naughten over Roscommon. But the party won’t want to lose any more — and neither will Labour want to lose any TD — for fear of starting a chain reaction which could see the Government lose its shape.
They especially won’t want to see it happen as early as December, less than a year into the Government’s term.
But some warning signs are there. When the Roscommon controversy was at its height in June, TDs began muttering about the lack of communication from senior ministers.
All Cabinets suffer from this problem: Accusations that ministers fail to communicate with the lower ranks.
When this becomes frequent, governments risk a real disconnect between ministers and backbenchers.
For that reason, Enda Kenny, his ministers and their handlers will no doubt be mindful in the coming months of keeping their backbenchers in the loop.
In order to sell the budget to the public, they’ll need their backbenchers to stand firmly behind it in every constituency. Hence, they’ll have to sell it to their backbenchers first.
Not for nothing yesterday did the canny Michael Noonan sum up the party think-in as follows: “Well, it’s a get-together first of all. The party’s very big now, there are 99 people in the parliamentary party, and we’re very conscious of the need to be a cohesive unit and all working with the same objectives. So it’s a briefing session so that everybody understands the issues that are coming up.”
In other words, everybody on board please. At this point, they more or less are. But keeping them there will be the challenge.
