A Fianna Fáil group set up to modernise the party organisation after its poor performance in the European and local elections has yet to hold its first meeting, more than two months after the June elections.
The group, which meets for the first time on Friday, is expected to call for a radical reform of the Fianna Fáil cumann structure which is seen by many in the party to be unsuited to the demands of modern politics.
With some 55,000 members in 3,000 Fianna Fáil cumainn, the group aims to harness the party's local strength to bolster its support in the run-up to the next General Election.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is expected to signal a move away from the Government's right-wing image in next month's Cabinet reshuffle, although the outgoing Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said yesterday that his successor should not change the Coalition's economic policy.
"I don't see a future Irish administration changing the economic policy, one that has delivered unbelievable success," he said on RTÉ radio.
"Everyone that's appointed to any Cabinet post should bring their own individual stance to that particular Cabinet post, but the overall Government policy I expect to remain the same, because it's something we signed up to '97, we re-signed up after the election of 2002 and it has worked very well."
While Mr McCreevy maintained that the economy was "not an issue" in the June elections, many Fianna Fáil TDs believe the Government should relax its economic policy in the wake of its poor result.
However, party sources said yesterday that the group of up to 20 party figures who will meet on Friday will concentrate their efforts on structures and not policy.
TDs believe the group will call on local cumainn to organise a monthly canvass of each ward in each constituency, a long-standing practice of the Dublin central constituency organisation led by Mr Ahern.
According to some in the party, this would enable activists to listen to the concerns of local communities "instead of sitting around talking among themselves" at meetings of local cumainn.
With many TDs fearful of the emergence of Sinn Féin as a powerful political force south of the Border, the group will also seek to redefine Fianna Fáil's republican ethos.
"The big idea will be that of the Republican party, and what the Fianna Fáil republican ethos means in modern-day Ireland," said a TD who is familiar with the group's agenda.
Mr Ahern will attend the first meeting of the group next Friday at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin.
The group will produce proposals to revitalise the party's structures before a special meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to take place at the Inchydoney Hotel in Co Cork on September 6th and 7th.
Members of the group include the backbench TDs Mr Pat Carey and Mr John Moloney, in addition to members of the party's National Executive and Ógra Fianna Fáil, its youth wing.
