FG National Conference: €1.8m war chest as Enda rallies election troops
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has a €1.8m Fine Gael war chest to fight the general election and has ordered that candidates and the party’s manifesto be in place by September.
Mr Kenny fired up Fine Gael’s re-election campaign over the weekend, leading attacks, with his ministers, against the main Opposition leaders and parties.
The Irish Examiner has learnt that party strategists are on notice to have up to 100 candidates chosen and ready to battle for the general election within six months. Mr Kenny has also told senior election strategists to have Fine Gael’s election promises for voters ready by then. A senior party source said: “Enda wants everybody on the pitch by September. He also wants the manifesto done and ready by then.”
His party has built up a general election fund of €1.8m, mainly from the Fine Gael draw over the last five years, party sources say. The annual raffle rakes in huge sums of cash.
Mr Kenny led charges against Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin at his party’s national conference in Mayo over the weekend. He appealed to voters not to elect parties with a record of wrecking the economy, or those who would destroy it.
However, another poor opinion poll for Fine Gael yesterday put it at two thirds of its 2011 election result, on 24%. Moreover, despite Mr Kenny’s desire to win a second term with Labour, support for the junior Coalition partner has again fallen to 7%, according to the Red C poll.
Senior Fine Gael figures now accept it is increasingly likely that a return to power will require some form of a triumvirate, where Independents would make up the numbers for Government.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan told RTÉ’s Claire Byrne on Saturday that Fine Gael will, if needs be, canvass Independent TDs “in the same policy space”.
At the conference in Castlebar, Health Minister Leo Varadkar called Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a “self-serving phoney” and said Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin could not be trusted in Government.
However, Mr Martin called on Mr Kenny to come out from behind the protection of set-piece events and engage in a face-to-face debate on election issues.
Mr Adams said Mr Kenny’s televised speech at the conference was merely a “back-slapping exercise” and that ministers were insulated from the effect of their policies.
Victim support units planned by gardaí
New Garda victim support units will be set up around the country in a fresh effort to tackle the effects of crime.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has also revealed details of a new team of burglary response units in areas most plagued by crime.
Addressing the Fine Gael national conference in Mayo at the weekend, Ms Fitzgerald announced her intention to set up a Criminal Justice Inspectorate that would oversee inspections of a number of agencies and services.
“The enemy of every family, every neighbourhood, every business, is crime,” she said. “And crime is like an opportunistic virus. It shifts. It morphs. It provides new and different threats every year.”
Ms Fitzgerald said Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan is in the process of setting up a burglary response unit. She pledged that when Fine Gael meets next year, there would be “provable improvement” in reducing burglary.
She said her officials were also examining the law around repeat offenders, including for burglaries. The issue of consecutive sentences for repeat offenders is being examined.
“We will free up prison space so that those who should be imprisoned are imprisoned,” said Ms Fitzgerald. “So that serious, serial and violent offenders are put behind bars and kept there.”
A crackdown on the smuggling of drugs into prisons was recently announced. This will include more rigorous searches, screening, and detection.
“The Irish Prison Service is committed to reducing this problem in view of the negative effects of drug smuggling in prisons, such as self-harm, assaults, bullying, and even death,” Ms Fitzgerald told the party conference.
New Garda victim support offices will also be established in every Garda division, delegates were told.
The general law on bail will also be reformed.
“Bail is not just an issue in relation to burglary,” said Ms Fitzgerald. “It’s a touchy issue on a wider front, so I’m planning to bring proposals to Government within the next month looking to draft a bill reforming the general law on bail.
“One area of the law that affects many people is that dealing with sexual offences. I have recently published the heads of a sexual offences bill.
“It will update our law in a significant way, addressing the grooming of children, the abuse of vulnerable people, the management of sex offenders, and other issues such as prostitution.
“Fine Gael is determined to face down crime and criminals to integrate the agencies overseeing that, and to deliver a new level of understanding and compassion to victims.”
Varadkar: Don’t trust FF or Sinn Féin to do any better
Health Minister Leo Varadkar launched a stinging attack on the main opposition parties and declared that neither Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin can be trusted in Government.
The Health Minister also said 2015 would be the year Irish emigrants return as the economy recovers.
Delivering his speech on health at the Fine Gael conference in Mayo, he also indicated that the rules for qualifying for medical cards are set to be eased further.
Focusing on Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s period as health minister between 2000 and 2004, Mr Varadkar questioned why more was not done to tackle the health crisis.
“When he was health minister, trollies and overcrowding were so bad that they didn’t even count the patients,” said Mr Varadkar. “We know from newspaper reports that patients were treated in ambulances and carparks one winter.
“Waiting lists in some instances ran to six years even though he promised to end them altogether within two. His promises were worth nothing then and are worth even less now.”
Mr Martin had spent millions of euro on public relations and millions more on endless reports and strategies, claimed Mr Varadkar.
“Now, he wants to be Taoiseach,” he said. “I’ll give him one thing, he has a brass neck. But delegates, you and I both know, Emperor Martin has no clothes.”
Mr Varadkar had equally strong criticism for Gerry Adams, honing on the Sinn Féin leader’s personal finances as well as the contrasts in party’s policies up North.
“He has houses on both sides of the border, though he pays his property tax and water charges to Her Majesty’s government in the North, but objects to paying in the Republic, so I’m told,” said Mr Varadkar.
“Yet even though he is resident in both places, he doesn’t use the health service, either North or South. Rather, he flies first class to America for treatment in a private hospital and yet claims to be paid the same as his driver.”
He claimed Mr Adams was a “self-serving phoney”.
Addressing the medical card scandal that saw the Coalition lose support last year after reducing the eligibility for services, Mr Varadkar said that moves would be taken to ease access to cards.
“We will continue to increase access to medical cards for people with serious illnesses, by relaxing the discretion requirements, while recognising that there will always be people just above the threshold, no matter where you set it.”
Mr Varadkar called on nurses, doctors, and therapists to return from Australia, the Middle East and elsewhere and that there were jobs waiting for them.
Sinn Féin yesterday said Mr Varadkar’s attack was an attempt to deflect from problems in health services.
Cork TD Jonathan O’Brien said: “Minister Varadkar’s time would be better spent reflecting on his own performance as Minister for Health.
“He is the Minister responsible for the dire overcrowding crisis in hospitals throughout this state.
Fianna Fáil yesterday said that Fine Gael had launched a series of “tired, cliched and inaccurate” attacks.
September date for party manifesto
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told senior Fine Gael figures he wants a party manifesto in place by September and all candidates selected and ready to contest the election.
Reports for party headquarters on half of the country’s 40 constituencies are complete. They have identified ‘problem’ areas where sitting TDs or senators may be squeezed out during selection.
The Irish Examiner has learned these include Clare, Sligo-Leitrim, and South Donegal . In Clare, Fine Gael has TDs Pat Breen and Joe Carey, and senators Martin Conway and Tony Mulcahy are also keen to contest a seat.
In the new configured Sligo-Leitrim constituency, party headquarters will have a headache deciding whether to run TDs Tony McLoughlin or John Perry from in the former county.
Similarly, in the new five-seat Donegal constituency, both Gaeltacht Minister Joe McHugh and his predecessor, Dinny McGinley TD, want to run.
Fine Gael’s first selection conventions will be held next month for Dublin Mid-West and Meath East.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and TD Derek Keating will be selected for the Dublin area, while TDs Helen McEntee and Regina Doherty will run in the latter.
A senior party source said most selection conventions would be completed by September.
At Fine Gael’s national conference in Mayo at the weekend, head of selection strategy MEP Brian Hayes also gave candidates new details about gender quotas.
According to sources, Mr Hayes stressed there would be no scenario where a female candidate would be added where seats would be under threat. “[He said] it makes no sense for election results,” said the source.
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