Fine Gael must change its power structure, report says

Fine Gael needs to rely less on "self-appointed sources of authority" and party strategy must not be kept within a tight group of senior figures if the mistakes of the last general election are to be avoided, an internal report has found,

Fine Gael’s poor general election performance was also partly a result of the party not being responsive enough to the “real unease of people” about their futures, the report said.

Commissioned by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the report, titled Reading the Past to Shape the Future, also said that the party’s election campaign was “dour” and recommended significant change across Fine Gael to prepare it for the next election.

It said that voters did not see the “new way of doing politics” Fine Gael had promised when it assumed office and suggested that a flawed reading of research led to its focus on the economy and “keeping the recovery going”.

However, the report by Marion Coy, the former head of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, did not point the finger of blame for the party's election performance at anyone in particular.

It said there was no appetite within Fine Gael for “finding sacrificial scapegoats”.

“No one person lost the election for Fine Gael and its future will not be shaped and defined by any one individual,” it said.

However, while declining to name accountable individuals, it said: “There is a compelling need for more internal debate, for less deference to some self-appointed sources of authority and for a willingness to engage with alternative viewpoints.”

The report said the party’s prevailing culture heretofore had been “overly cautious” and reliant on a small group with “perceived expertise”. This “needs to change”.

Ms Coy, who also chairs the Collins Institute, a Fine Gael-linked think-tank, also said the party needs to immediately focus on the next election.

“There was an acknowledgement that Fine Gael had made some poor decisions and that its capacity to respond quickly and decisively to national sentiment was flawed,” it said.

It said Fine Gael needs to make a distinction between the party and the Government.

It said the party should be able to point to specific policies and have a "clearly stated vision of the kind of Ireland it wants to see develop and the actions it would like to take to see that vision realised".

There must also be “a strong alternative to the politics of fear, anxiety and negativity”.

The primary function of “economic policy” should be to improve society, it said.

Deputy leader

On the role of the deputy leader of the party, it said this role — currently held by former minister Dr James Reilly — should focus on party organisation in the constituencies.

It also said the "reporting relationship" for Tom Curran, the Fine Gael general secretary, should be clarified.

While the report did not specifically mention the research that led to the party’s election message, it said any research findings must be opened up to a wider group of people.

There was internal criticism in Fine Gael that election research — and the drafting of the “Let’s Keep the Recovery Going” message — was held within a tight group of people.

“This will require a cultural change so that the research findings and the assertions of individuals (regardless of role/position) are regarded as contestable.”

Ms Coy last week told Fine Gael TDs that the party had been warned by research companies weeks before the election never to use language that took economic recovery for granted.

At the same time, it was repeating its mantra of “Let’s Keep the Recovery Going”.

Despite the warning, on the first night of its ardfheis in January, Mr Kenny used the phrase 10 times, and nine times in his main televised address on Saturday night.

The party’s relationship with the media should also be improved, the report said.

“Fine Gael does not control the media and the media does not control Fine Gael.

“Their mutual interests are poorly served at the moment. I encountered frustration on both sides and a lot of mutual suspicion.”

Mr Kenny ordered two reports into Fine Gael’s poor election performance, one from Ms Coy and another from a group of TDs.

While the draft recommendations of Ms Coy’s report were outlined to the parliamentary party at its recent think-in, the final reports were distributed to TDs and senators on Monday night.