Mr Jim Mitchell is putting forward the clearest programme of party reform and national policy of all four candidates.
He is calling for Fine Gael to be "liberated from excessive centralised control" and wants the party leader to have less control over the press office and decision-making party bodies.
He wants an ardfheis every year instead of every two years. "We would have meaningful debate; policy would be decided there," he says. He wants four vice-presidents, elected by the ardfheis, to act as a balance to the party leader.
The 23-member front bench would be reduced to about 16 under Mr Mitchell's leadership. He would drop the practice of having a place on it for an MEP, the party leader in the Seanad would have observer status and the party chairman would not be a member.
His national policy, he says, is one of social democracy. "The Just Society is as elusive today as it was in the 1960s."
He strongly supports "affirmative action to attract women into politics and ensure they don't leave".
He proposes the abolition of DIRT tax, on the basis that it is a tax on savings at a time when rates of interest are below the rate of inflation. He says he has a series of proposals to bring integrity back into public life.
He has written to all 72 members of the parliamentary party asking them not to commit themselves until he talks to them. He has wasted no time in sending them details of the MRBI poll which showed him as the voters' choice.
"Suddenly the idea of a Fine Gael/Labour government is back in the picture, according to these figures," he said yesterday. "Our relationship with Labour is very important and I would have a closer affinity to Labour's thoughts and ideas than would other members of the party."