‘Labour out of touch with grassroots’

Labour chairman Colm Keaveney has warned the party leadership is not communicating with grassroots members well enough.

The Galway East TD stepped up his demands for a party-wide ballot on whether Labour should sign up to a second emergency bailout after the call caught Eamon Gilmore by surprise.

As the Tánaiste returned from an oversees trip last night, he faced division in his party over Mr Keaveney’s call.

Mr Keaveney stood over his comments about ensuring the party’s 8,000 members must give approval for the terms of a new bailout — despite some party colleagues saying such a vote would likely trigger Labour’s exit from Government.

“If we can’t persuade Labour, then how can we persuade the country?” Mr Keaveney told RTÉ.

The party chairman insisted it was his job to voice the concerns of ordinary members. “We need to improve our methodology of communicating with our own members.

“As chairperson of the Labour Party I am there to have a concern about the welfare of the party. I need to ensure that we bring our membership with us,” he said.

Most economists believe Ireland will be forced to accept a second troika bailout at the end of next year as the cost of returning to the markets to borrow money is likely to be too high.

Mr Keaveney said the party would need to get backing for such a move for it to have any kind of “political or moral” mandate to introduce more austerity measures.

He also criticised Coalition partners Fine Gael saying they took a “certain degree of comfort” in the harsh economic measures demanded by the troika.