The Republican Party, Fianna Fail is alone among the major political parties in Ireland today in having a core message, a unitary ideology - republicanism.
This very assertion will gall and vex those who would portray the party as a simple, malevolent and unsophisticated force in the political landscape. To advance the notion of an ideological Fianna Fail is to reject the simplistic view of the party too often proffered today. It is to assert that Irish politics does not form a simple moral division - that Fianna Fail is not all bad, that the rest are not all good.
Our organisation's aim is a society where all citizens receive an equal opportunity to realise their full potential - where gender, economic or social background is no impediment. This is a republican vision.
Many are uneasy, though, with talk of ideological motivation in politics. After all, the 20th century saw ideology disguise evil and kill millions of people. In Ireland, ideology turned rational men into sectarian bigots and was hijacked to excuse murder. This unease exists as much in Fianna Fail as elsewhere. We are proud of our republicanism but have been shy to publicise it. I believe the time has come for this to change.
All over Europe, onetime socialist political parties scurry for ways to hide, mask and repackage their old ideologies. These parties have moved to the centre-left, a position which is in a way similar to that of traditional Fianna Fail. While we have occupied this position for almost 75 years, the European parties are open to the charge of political expediency and a dearth of vision. A recent Guardian editorial, for example, appealed for something more - call it vision - if ideology no longer chimes. Our organisation in Ireland, though, has that vision already in republicanism.
While allegations of sleaze and misconduct have dogged the body politic, we must make it clear that in the Republican Party there can be no place for tax evasion or abuse of power.
Our supporters, honest men and women, are rocked and hurt daily by revelations and allegations of wrongdoing. But, objectively, this Government has done more than any Irish government to eliminate sleaze from politics.
We have enacted the Local Government Act, which provides for the disclosure of donations over £500 to candidates in local elections. We have published a Prevention of Corruption Bill to extend the offence of corruption to include indirect corruption and to remedy the deficiencies in Rainbow Government legislation which omitted TDs and senators from the definition of office-holder and which did not cover local government. The Local Government Bill sets out a comprehensive ethics framework for local government, and the Standards in Public Office Bill will, among other things, establish a tax clearance requirement for office-holders and public servants. The party has also established a mandatory code of ethics for itself.
While governments have seemed to follow disparate and meandering policies, we must clearly show that our republican ethos motivates our policies and sets them apart. It was this ethos which motivated our founding fathers to introduce slum clearance, social housing, the development of a public health service, free secondary education and the introduction of unemployment assistance in the past.
Today, social inclusion and social partnership are perhaps the most definitive of Fianna Fail policies. Plainly they are effective republican policies.
Prior to the first partnership agreement in 1987, Ireland had a higher debt per capita than Poland and Brazil. The Economist magazine had labelled us the Poorest of the Rich and the Times of London famously asserted that money-lenders were going to pull down the shutters on Ireland. As the US celebrates an unemployment rate of 3.9 per cent - the lowest since 1970 - the latest live register figures here indicate a level of 3.8 per cent.
I WOULD not assert for one moment that Fianna Fail has delivered a perfect republic. Long-term unemployment is still present, albeit below two per cent, and inequality, injustice and poverty doggedly persist. Fianna Fail in social partnership, through social inclusion, is about ridding Ireland of these forces.
Having already met the National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS) goals (which had a target date of 2007) we have turned to more ambitious targets as part of the Social Inclusion Strategy, including that of reducing consistent poverty to below five per cent by 2004.
In a real sense, the time for a more vocal republicanism has come. Internationally, there is a renewed interest in republicanism. The resurgence of republican ideals in Australia and elsewhere place the party's vision in a wider context.
In a more ecologically aware world, an attitude is forming that Liberal Citizenship and the notions that individuals may acquire and consume to their hearts' content, without consideration of the community at large and the greater good, could be replaced with a notion of a Republican Citizenship - the individual in the community, not dominated by the state but with civic responsibility. Put plainly - an end to me feinism.
All of this will be anathema to those who seek to corral Fianna Fail in simplistic terms in Irish politics. How dare Fianna Fail be progressive and radical? More importantly, how dare Fianna Fail have a 75-years-old progressive and radical history which is eminently relevant today?
Andrews on Saturday appears each week
