Fergus Finlay: Political junkie

Regarded as the best political strategist the Labour party has ever had and the brains behind Dick Spring's leadership, Fergus Finlay is finally bowing out. Fergal Keane wonders how he will he cope without the buzz of the political game.

Fergus Finlay is rounding off a career which has spanned nearly 25 years in politics. Fourteen years as political advisor to Dick Spring, then a few years in the relative backwater of public affairs lobbying, before finally returning to act as advisor to Pat Rabbitte, Finlay has seen many come and go, including on a couple of occasions, himself.

In June he takes over as chief executive of the children's charity, Barnardo's, probably never to return to political life. His decision to take the job was announced in March and came as a shock to the Labour Party. He agreed to remain on until the annual conference, which is seen as being crucial in the leadership of Pat Rabbitte, as he tries to bring the party with him in agreeing a political pact with Fine Gael before the next general election. A deal is by no means certain and talk of committing the party to this course of action has already led to considerable angst in its upper echelons.

In recent months there have been rumours of internal tensions at Labour Party HQ, much of it emanating from Rabbitte's different leadership style. Whether this had anything to do with his departure, Finlay wasn't saying.

"When the Barnardo's job came along, I just couldn't say no," he said on the announcement of his appointment. "I am a supporter of Pat Rabbitte. I remain a supporter of Pat Rabbitte. I hope he becomes the next Taoiseach."

Within a day or two he was being a little more forthcoming. The Labour leader sulked a bit if he didn't get his own way and he could be stubborn, Finlay told TV3. But there had never been a cross word between them and they got on well, he said.

During the leadership election campaign, which saw Rabbitte emerge as the Labour leader, Fergus Finlay worked as the campaign organiser for his opponent, Brendan Howlin. But immediately on his election in 2002, Rabbitte coaxed Finlay back from the world of political lobbying, knowing full well, according to those in the party, that Finlay was the best political strategist the party had ever had. They also shared a total hatred and mistrust of Fianna Fáil.

Back in politics and earning a reputed salary of €100,000 (the money would have been a considerable drop in pay from his time as a lobbyist) he was back in the centre of things in Leinster House, but never again achieved the almost total dominance of the party he enjoyed while with Dick Spring.

Back in the Spring days, there were complaints that Spring, Finlay and a few others would make all the decisions that mattered and just tell the party what they were. The decision to nominate Adi Roche to run for president in 1997 was a case in point. No one was told before hand and one TD said that the announcement to the party that she would be their candidate was like watching the Oscars, except no one knew what the nominations were. Spring produced an envelope opened, it and read out her name and the parliamentary party were expected to clap.

At the time Finlay was also being criticised as arrogant and even his admirers would admit that he had a tendency towards pomposity.

The Adi Roche presidential campaign was a disaster and saw Finlay depart Labour of his own volition, while still well thought-of in the party. He moved to the other side of the journalistic divide for a time and presented a programme with Frank Dunlop on RTÉ television, Later with Dunlop and Finlay. Even though he said he liked Dunlop, the pairs' ill-concealed antipathy to each other added spice to the late night political talk show. At the time, Dunlop's activities were well-known but had yet to be revealed in the full glare of publicity. It must have been a relief to Finlay when RTÉ replaced Dunlop with another lobbyist and Fianna Fáil back-room boy, Jackie Gallagher.

While the programme continued for a couple of years, he started the Irish Public Affairs Digest, an electronic publication which eventually proved to be unsuccessful. Freelance work with Wilson Hartnell Public Relations proved to be more fruitful and he was recruited to start a public affairs unit in that company to represent businesses in their dealings with government. Clients included Campus Stadium Ireland, whom he represented during the media feeding frenzy surrounding the Bertie Bowl.

He represented a waste company accused of running an illegal dump and even more controversially he was involved in advising the Irish tobacco industry in their campaigns against increased regulations. This last posting caused him embarrassment, but he inherited it as head of the WHPR public affairs department. Even so it must have left him questioning the role he was playing at the time.

"Tobacco is perceived as a product that requires a very high degree of regulation because it's perceived as being dangerous," he said. "I work with the tobacco companies to ensure that regulation is addressed in a fair and reasonable way."

During that time he continued commentating on political life through his column in the Examiner and was also a regular contributor to discussions on radio.

He is described as the ultimate political junkie who missed the buzz of being at the centre of the action and it was no surprise at all when he returned to the fold in Labour.

It was there he started his political life in 1982, when he was recruited from a US multinational to work as a speechwriter with the new party leader, Dick Spring. He had started life in the Workers' Union of Ireland and Impact and when he met Spring, an extraordinarily close relationship was formed which lasted for 15 years. They never seemed to fall out in public or private and each seemed to trust the other implicitly.

There were two stints in government, in the coalition with Albert Reynolds' Fianna Fáil, between 1993 and 1996, and the Rainbow Coalition which followed. With the Reynolds Government he was head of the Government Information Service and second-in-command to Government Press Secretary, Sean Duignan. That relationship and that of the coalition never seemed to recover from the publication of the report of the Beef Tribunal. Afterwards Duignan painted a picture of himself and Albert locked away in Government Buildings with a copy of the report getting ready to spin their way out of trouble, while Finlay and Spring were literally locked out of the building, peeking in the keyhole in absolute fury.

He was more comfortable in the Rainbow Coalition and had opposed the Fianna Fáil coalition at the beginning. He later admitted that going into Government with Fianna Fáil had angered the electorate, who had switched to Labour in huge numbers in 1992 in the belief that they were anti-Fianna Fáil. He said that the last General Election showed that the public still had not forgiven them.

But despite all his political credentials, Barnardo's seems a perfect fit for him and he will have a budget of €100 million over the next five years. He is by nature a campaigning leftie who has an abiding interest in childrens' welfare and in children with special needs. He has a Down Syndrome daughter, Mandy, who represented Ireland in the Special Olympics, an event he was closely involved in organising. He once told the Irish Independent about the day that changed his life:

"The turning point for my wife Frieda and myself was when our first daughter Mandy was born with Down Syndrome 30 years ago. At that point I became an activist for people with disabilities, which I would not otherwise have been. In 1972 we were very much on our own, there was no advice, no services and no support for parents with handicapped children. The situation has improved but most young parents will say that it is still a constant battle to get what you need."