Where are the candidates who will lead the PDs into greater Europe?

IF the delegates making their way to the Progressive Democrats’ annual conference in Killarney were the equivalent of shareholders gathering for the annual general meeting of a publicly quoted company, there is one question which this analyst would be suggesting they ask those at the top table: will the PDs field any candidates in the upcoming European elections?

With less than 80 days to go to polling day they have not yet declared a candidate for any of the four European constituencies.

This is significant in its own right and undermines whatever ambitions they might have to grow as a genuinely national party.

However, it is even more significant when one realises that if the PDs still have no candidate when nominations close for the European elections in mid-May, this will be the second time that the party will have 'sat out' this important election.

In 1999 the party had no European election candidates either.

If Dáil elections are the premier league of political contests, the PD decision to opt out of the Euro poll is like sitting out two successive FA cup competitions. It doesn't make any rational political sense.

It is hard to blame Liz O'Donnell for announcing last week that she would not contest in the Dublin constituency. Having been asked belatedly to reconsider, she probably feared that a run for the European Parliament would imply that she was withdrawing from the domestic political scene.

However, her decision leaves her party exposed to charges of a lack of interest in, and planning for, the Euro election contest.

During the 2002 Dáil election the PDs ran a very successful campaign. They spotted the gap in the market voter apprehension at the prospect of a Fianna Fáil overall majority.

They also attracted many soft, unsettled Fine Gael supporters, particularly in south Dublin constituencies, who gave up on Noonan's party and deserted to the second best option of strengthening the Progressive Democrats in order to constrain Fianna Fáil.

The 2002 results, in the medium to long term, have dramatically strengthened the Progressive Democrat position in the party system.

The loss of so many Dáil seats by Fine Gael has created more room for the PDs to prosper. If Fine Gael fails to reverse, or at least contain, its decline in this June's local and European elections, the resultant vacuum leaves real opportunities for the Progressive Democrats.

The curious thing is that at times the PDs do not seem interested in or prepared to capitalise on the opportunity presented to it by Fine Gael's difficulty. The most glaring example of this is their attitude to the European elections.

While all of the other political parties have spent the first three months of this year holding selection conventions or fired up in nomination contests, the PDs, as of yet, have had no activity associated with the European election. This non-participation in the European elections is particularly curious when the weakness of the Fine Gael candidate line-up in Dublin creates a real opening for them. Once upon a time the PDs used to contest European elections. Indeed the current president of the European Parliament, the independent MEP Pat Cox, was initially a Progressive Democrat MEP.

Two European elections ago, in 1994, the PDs had a candidate in all four Euro constituencies and even came close to winning a seat in two of the four constituencies.

Some party strategists may argue that they are now concentrating their organisational resources on the local election campaign by not running for the European parliament.

If this is the case then their organisational resources must be fairly depleted. All of the other parties of a similar size to the Progressive Democrats are not only running strong local election campaigns (in fact, most are running more local candidates than the PDs), they are also running Euro campaigns in all four constituencies.

The other small parties have been braver in recent European elections and this bravery has paid off for them. Sinn Féin, as of yet, have not won a European parliament seat, but they managed to run a candidate in all four Euro constituencies in the last two elections.

Sinn Féin candidates put in respectable performances in all four constituencies in 1999 and two of them, Sean Crowe in Dublin and Martin Ferris in Munster, used the campaigns as opportunities to raise their profiles and subsequently to win Dáil seats.

The Green Party have also contested two Euro constituencies in the last four elections and, of course, won a seat in two constituencies both times.

WITH EU membership now shaping so much policy and law here in Ireland, and the European Parliament growing in power and standing within the decision-making system, it is peculiar that those who supported the PDs in the last general election, or who share the party's views on Europe, may have to find some other party's candidate to support on June 11.

It is not as if the Progressive Democrats couldn't benefit from the opportunity to raise the profile of some of their Dáil candidates by giving them a Euro run. They are a niche party not only niche in policy but also niche in geography.

With a few rare exceptions the party holds no local authority seats outside of the southern half of Dublin, east Limerick (mainly the city), Galway and two pockets of Cork.

The party's only success at broadening its geographic base in recent years has been through acquisitions.

They acquired an independent councillor, Mae Sexton, and her organisation in Longford, and in 2002 she won a Dáil seat for them there.

One of the party's newest senators, Kate Hayes, was an independent county councillor and planning campaigner in Kildare. Their most profitable acquisition was from the IFA when they hitched former president Tom Parlon and many of his Laois-Offaly IFA associates to the Progressive Democrat electoral train in 2002.

Examples of organically grown PD seats, outside of the initial bases of the original Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael breakaways who founded the party, are few and far between.

Maybe Mary Harney has the names of some European election candidates up her sleeve and plans dramatically to announce them during her leader's address on Saturday night. However, even if this unlikely scenario plays out they will be starting with a handicap, well behind their rivals, some of whom have been in the field for months.

It may not be the most important political issue on the delegates' radar in Killarney this weekend. Maybe they have weightier policy issues to consider.

However, all the policies in the world are worthless unless seats are won in the parliaments where these policies can be implemented, and it's very hard to win those seats if you don't even contest the election.