Eddie Hobbs’ message - Fianna Fáil should listen to people

It should be a chastened and worried Fianna Fáil parliamentary party which gathers in County Cavan today to consider what state it is in and, more particularly, what it is doing wrong to provoke such an angry reaction among the electorate.

As much as the meeting’s agenda, and probably more, they will be as interested in tonight’s television schedule to see latest offering from Eddie Hobbs who is the cause of so much angst among the population.

Probably, more attention should be devoted to the public’s reaction to Mr Hobbs’ message than to the message from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s favourite guru.

Professor Robert Putnam may well be a distinguished Harvard academic and adviser to presidents and prime ministers, but the best advice he could give Mr Ahern is that almost one million Irish people cannot be wrong.

With a general election looming, and potentially the loss of a significant number of Dáil seats, Fianna Fáil should tune into what is provoking such public unrest.