FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny is not expected to apologise for his use of strong language at a party meeting last week at today’s meeting of the parliamentary party, senior sources have said.
During the course of what was described as a turbulent party meeting last week, an exchange between Mr Kenny and Lucinda Creighton ended with the Dublin South East TD leaving the meeting.
At another juncture, Mr Kenny told Galway East TD Ulick Burke that he had “gone out on a f**king limb” for him when Mr Burke complained about the lack of consultation involving the recruitment by Fine Gael of former PD leader Ciarán Cannon. Mr Cannon is based in the same constituency as Mr Burke.
Yesterday, Ms Creighton said she had no comment to make on the matter other than wanting the issue to move on. “It’s an internal matter and we want to deal with it in in that way,” she said.
Earlier, the party’s deputy leader Richard Bruton said that the type of “frank and fair exchanges” last week arises in all parties from time to times. Speaking on RTÉ, he said the exchanges had taken place in the context of a private party meeting.
“Maybe there should not have been walk-outs,” he said.
But when asked if Mr Kenny would apologise, he said: “These things happen in parties all the time. It’s not a question of apologising. It’s a reflection of the commitment of people to achieve high things.”
Mr Bruton also launched a new Fine Gael strategy yesterday which he said would radically reform the public service and end what he called its “tolerance of failure”. He also claimed that the system of running the public service was “corrupted by budgetary practices that were not fit for a corner shop”. Mr Bruton said if elected to government, Fine Gael would issue “clear riding instructions” to the public service to effect radical reforms.
“We will back ambitious managers who are crying out for change. We shall end the tolerance of failure by ministers or public service managers. We shall introduce accountability with consequences, naming and shaming under-performance, and requiring managers to shape up or ship out,” he said.
Mr Bruton unveiled the policy at a seminar at the UCD business school yesterday. His audience included senior public service officials.
Mr Bruton said the “tragedy” of the public service was that talented and committed people were trapped in a system that failed themand that Fine Gael would implement changes to promote excellence.
