Brendan Howlin plans to bring Labour back to basics

The last election devastated Labour, which losing 30 of its 37 Dáil seats. Political Editor Daniel McConnell talks to leader Brendan Howlin about his plan to win back votes by winning back the workers

THESE are dark days for the Labour Party.

After a “torrid” election result, which saw them lose 30 of 37 seats won in 2011, the party has been gripped by an existential crisis.

On top of the loss of TDs, there came the subsequent loss of State funding, which forced a radical downsizing of headquarters and the departure of many key members of staff.

A poll rating of just 3% in the Sunday Timesnewspaper has many questioning the party’s viability.

Out-muscled by political enemies Sinn Fein and the Anti-Austerity Alliance in their neighbourhoods, the road to recovery is uncertain.

Into this space steps Brendan Howlin, whose own elevation to become leader was mired in controversy.

It was speculated that Mr Howlin was not willing to consider a contest against the pugnacious Alan Kelly and the party rigged the game to keep the younger man out.

With little to show so far for his efforts and now six months into his post, I met Mr Howlin for lunch in one of his favourite restaurants, Hugo’s on Merrion Row.

It is situated around the corner from his old Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

So familiar was Mr Howlin in the fashionable and bustling Hugo’s, it had obtained the nickname of being his department’s canteen.

Yet, in keeping with these Spartan times for his party, he declines the offer of wine. Sparkling water it is. He orders the fish, while I have the chicken.

As we await the arrival of our food, I begin by asking him about that terrible poll rating of 3%, which is a long way from the 34% rating held by the party on the eve of the 2011 election.

He insists there is no cause for panic yet.

“The polls are all over the shop. The best advice I got was to ignore the polls for the first two years,” he says.

“Politics generally is in flux. The AAA were on 9% last week and are on 3% this week. We were on 8% two weeks ago, now we are on 3%. I think they are really meaningless to be honest with you.

“Obviously, we had a torrid election result, that had an enormous impact in many ways, not only the loss of so many good full-time politicians, young politicians in particular.”

So, what are the main lessons for the country’s oldest party from the election, I ask him.

“The election result was clearly a response to our five years in Government,” he says. “We went in with our eyes open to bluntly fix the country, put the country first. We knew there would be an impact negatively on the party.”

He admits that he and other members of the party “underestimated” how savagely they were being attacked by their “political enemies” in their traditional heartlands.

“No, we just didn’t sell our message well enough,” he says.

“I underestimated in Government the damage that was being done to us in our neighbourhoods by our political enemies.

“They were constantly targeting us and that is still ongoing.”

So, has he learned from those mistakes?

For Mr Howlin, the party has to “get back to basics”, echoing former British Tory prime minister John Major.

He says Labour will again be the party of work and workers, focusing in on working conditions to ensure fair wages. He also is eyeing up re-establishing the connection with Ireland’s 300,000 public servants, who he sees as the party’s “natural constituency”.

Which began an in-depth discussion about the ongoing industrial relations chaos which is engulfing the country, just as our food arrived.

Mr Howlin, as the recently ex-minister for Public Expenditure, has a unique insight as to Government’s handling of the crisis.

He is scathing about his successor Paschal Donohoe’s handling of the issue, accusing him and Fine Gael of “naivety and disastrous inexperience”, while insisting his own efforts since 2011 were “remarkable”.

“What I did was remarkable in five years,” he says. “In the worst of times, compare us to any other programme countries, we maintained industrial peace across the public service.

“We didn’t lose any days in strike and yet I negotiated two agreements that were voted and accepted by the members.

“It was clear to me that you have to keep the public service together. You cannot allow people outside the deal to be advantaged over the those who are in it.

“The Government ignored that advice, they have allowed people outside the deal to get a better deal.

“It has been a disastrous strategy and I think it is a lack of experience.

“I think the government as a whole and Fine Gael in particular, it is not an area in which they are comfortable in. They can’t talk to unions and bring them with them.

“Fine Gael has always had two attitudes: Outright confrontation or absolute surrender. They don’t seem to do the medium bit.”

Mr Howlin feels that we are heading to a too-late acceptance of the strategy he laid out two months ago.

“The Government will, no doubt early in the new year, open successor talks to the Lansdowne Road Agreement,” he says.

But, moving back to matters within his own party, I bring him back to the day of his elevation and the absence of Alan Kelly.

While leading commentators such as Eoghan Harris said Mr Kelly was right to snub the event, others including myself described it as a petulant act.

How did Mr Howlin see it?

“Of course, I have spoken to him about it, I spoke to him the next day about it. I think Alan was disappointed with the outcome.

“He wanted to be a candidate himself. He felt that, because of the perceived controversy, it would have been a discordial thing for him to be there.

“Which was fine, I accepted that and he is a fully signed-up member of the team.”

But is your leadership not undermined by the lack of a contest, particularly in a party such as Labour where democracy is paramount, I ask him.

“We had a lot of discussion in the party and I went into it with an open mind to hear what was being said,” Mr Howlin replies.

“It was my analysis that we were at a critical juncture, we still are, and the last thing we needed was another trek around the country for two months talking to ourselves.

“I felt we should settle the leadership issue quickly and that was the view shared by everyone else in the party apart from Alan Kelly.”

Do you not see the irony of the socially democratic party denying a candidate’s chances to run?

“The constitution is that a candidate be nominated by another member of the party and it is not a tall order, just one other member.

“Every other single member of the party thought that I was the right person for the job and they wanted it done.”

Our plates our cleared, and Mr Howlin rejects the offer of dessert, but coffees arrive shortly after.

Known to be a workaholic, I ask him about the man behind the public persona. Mr Howlin is very coy in his response.

What does he like to do when he’s off duty?

“I like to go back to Wexford,” he says. “I like to maintain my friends and my friendships. I like to be a private person when I can be.

“My home is a very open forum where people come to see me.

“I have an open house. I have a very close extended family.”

Is there a significant other in his life, I ask.

“No, and I don’t talk about that, no,” is the polite but curt response.

The bill arrives and he takes a call which tells him he is needed back in the Dáil.

As another political leader famously said once — a lot done, more to do.