Fianna Fáil go into listening mode for Killarney ard-fheis

Fianna Fáil's ard-fheis theme is listening, but most of the motions will congratulate Ministers and avoid all those problem issues. By Eoin O Murchu

Less talk from Ministers and more listening to the membership – those are the key themes for this weekend's 69th Fianna Fáil ard-fheis in the Gleneagles Hotel, Killarney.

With the party (and Government) being battered by a series of crises in health, transport, housing, infrastructural development costs and public administration, there is a palpable sense that the party has lost its way and that it needs to reconnect with the electorate.

The first step towards this is to modernise the party itself, by bringing young people and women to the fore, presenting an image of Fianna Fáil as a party that reflects the Irish people as they are today.

A key element of this is the Gender Equality Action Plan. The Committee of Fifteen, described by Education Minister Mary Hanafin as the all-powerful ruling body, is to be replaced by a Committee of Twenty, made up of ten men and ten women. More significantly, at least one third of delegates to conventions to select candidates will have to be women in future, if a key organisational change is agreed.

There will be some complaints about these changes, but party organisers believe the proposals will be easily carried. And once the principle of quotas for women is enshrined in party practice, it is believed there will automatically be more women selected as candidates, or even mandatory quotas of women candidates in future elections.

Elections to the Committee of Twenty throw up some interesting issues. While the male side is more competitive with 16 candidates fighting for 10 seats, there are only 11 women chasing their 10 seats. Who will be the unlucky one?

This emphasis on organisational change is what the ard-fheis is really about, although the party is boasting about the large number of motions proposed, the 5,000-plus delegates who will attend and so on.

In a briefing to journalists, Hanafin was keen to emphasise that the membership would be deciding policy, that there had been no arbitrary ruling-out of motions the leadership might not like and that Ministers had been instructed to keep their own contributions to the bare minimum to allow maximum time for interventions from the membership.

Fianna Fáil needs to listen it seems, and needs to be seen to be listening.

But, when challenged as to what influence previous ard-fheis decisions had had on Government policy, she was at a loss. "I am sure that if I had a clár [from a previous ard-fheis] in front of me I could go through it and show you examples," she said, but in the absence of such a copy she could only reassure journalists that this was the case.

The problem is that one of the high-profile motions passed at previous ard-fheiseanna was one that the party should organise in the North. The leadership argued against the terms of this motion at the time, mainly on the grounds that it would undermine the SDLP, whom Fianna Fáil supports, but it was carried anyway. Nothing has been done to implement this decision, and when challenged, Mary Hanafin simply repeated the arguments against the motion.

On policy, despite the leadership's admonition that this is an ard-fheis for listening, the majority of motions remain hagiographical, congratulating various Ministers on the good things they have done. The problematic issues, such as those associated with "rip-off Ireland", are only referred to by implication.

For example, motions on transport call for the introduction of toll-free use of the M50, but there is no challenge to the principle of tolling in general or an assessment of how public transport fits into a scheme of increased spending on roads.

The vital issue of the western corridor (road and rail) is brought up, but the generality is already Government policy and the motions really amount only to an expression of goodwill to any minister who delivered on this. There is certainly no indication that failure to deliver would have any political cost at all.

Equally, on housing there is considerable emphasis on expanding the Affordable Housing Scheme, with a Wicklow cumann calling for the naming and shaming of local authorities that fail to meet their targets, but no motion insisting that the Minister meet his.

It is perhaps natural that, with the party in Government, the ard-fheis should be more concerned with fine-tuning policy, but given the level of public concern on these and other issues it is hard to strike a balance between giving the impression of a party that is divided and a party that lacks spark and new ideas.

Fianna Fáil is certainly not divided, if the ard-fheis motions are any guide. But we will have to wait for the speeches from the delegates before we can tell whether or not there are any new ideas.

The main speech, of course, will be the leader's address. This will be keenly parsed, but it is expected that Bertie Ahern will admit the areas of concern that are upsetting the public, but emphasise the Government's success in economic policy and insist that the problems we face are those of success. He will caution against going back on the programmes that he asserts have given us current prosperity.

He will boast of the fruitful developments in the peace process, and insist that Fianna Fáil is a party of community principles and efficient administration.

But, given the many examples of botched policy, failed administration, and tragic maladministration, he will need to choose his words very carefully indeed to convince the public.p

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity