Polls apart – Fine Gael ignores public opinion and focuses on a 'regroup' 

Far from being a no-holds-barred look at what ails the party like its coalition partners Fianna Fáil, the Fine Gael exchanges were described variously as being 'unifying', 'pragmatic' and 'flat', with the issue of the 2020 general election, long in the rearview mirror

Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar at  Trim Castle on Monday for the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party think-in. Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins Dublin

A bad summer.

That is how Tánaiste Leo Varadkar surmised the last number of weeks for his party as Fine Gael gathered at Trim Castle Hotel in Co Meath for two days in the shadow of the Zappone controversy.

It was an opportunity to "refresh, regroup and reset” as the Tánaiste put it, coming 24 hours after a pair of polls made for bracing reading for the TDs, senators and MEPs inside the Grand Hall of the hotel.

Fine Gael was down two points in the Business Post Red C poll on 28%, while The Sunday Times Behaviour & Attitudes poll saw Mr Varadkar's popularity plummet to 39%, down nine points, with Fine Gael now 10 points behind Sinn Féin on just 23% in the same Behaviour & Attitudes poll.

With the polls in mind, Fine Gaelers did not need to be told it had been a sub-par break for the party.

But far from being a no-holds-barred look at what ails the party like its coalition partners Fianna Fáil, the Fine Gael exchanges were described variously as being "unifying", "pragmatic" and "flat", with the issue of the 2020 general election, where the party lost 12 seats, long in the rear view mirror.

If those assembled wondered about the polls as they placed their phones under the seats to avoid leaks to the media, they did not say so afterwards, with many repeating that well-worn phrase about the only poll that matters being the one on election day. But surely they will have taken stock over the weekend and it will not have been difficult to link the drop in approval for Mr Varadkar and the party as a whole.

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For better or worse, many in the public now see the Tánaiste as his party.

As the Fine Gael minority government won praise for its handling of the early days of Covid-19, it was then-taoiseach Mr Vardakar, then-health-now-Further Education Minister Simon Harris and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe who were largely presented as the Government and their perceived calmness was well-received by the public.

But as the months have worn on and with Mr Varadkar awaiting his return to the Taoiseach's office, those three and former tánaiste Simon Coveney have come to represent the Fine Gael party in the mind of many of the public. That means every scandal involving those personalities will weigh the party down. Likewise, as their stock rises, so too will all boats.

While some will argue Ireland doesn't do personality politics, party leaders have always moved the needle one way or the other. Mr Varadkar is an outlier even in this, as he is so closely identified with not just the party, but its entire ideology. 

And this is no accident. In his leadership campaign in 2017, many who supported him made a point of this fact. But with the party's leading lights central to a host of avoidable errors in the last year, not to mention the Tánaiste still under Garda investigation, the party needs to reset the public opinion of its leaders more than anything.