Labour meeting/election run-up: Fine Gael in Cork has benefited more from the strategy to tie Fine Gael and Labour closely together in the run-up to the general election, one of Labour's leading Dáil hopefuls warned.
Speaking in Cork last night, one of the party's two candidates in Dublin South, Aidan Culhane said: "It seems that all of the benefits, such as they are, of the alternative government strategy are going to Fine Gael." Labour's poll rating is "worrying", he said.
He was annoyed by the Labour leadership's decision recently to add Alex White to the party's ticket in Dublin South.
"Fine Gael has become the story. Enda Kenny is getting all of the attention and we are getting quite marginalised. We have to become a lot sharper and clearer about the policies that we want to see implemented in government," he said.
Labour, he said, had spent its time criticising the Government's performance in office and had not pushed its own agenda: "There is a feeling out there that we are not being positive."
He rejected the view put forward by Fine Gael's top strategist, Frank Flannery, that FG can make substantial gains without taking Labour seats: "That is, frankly, rubbish," he declared.
Stronger efforts by Labour to push its own policies would not hurt the attempt to create an alternative government, he argued: "I don't think it would. It has not damaged Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats."
However, it is understood that Mr Culhane, who voiced his complaints during a private session at the Labour gathering yesterday afternoon, received little public support from TDs, Senators and other candidates.
Earlier, former Labour minister of state, Joan Burton, who is facing a tough battle to hold onto her seat in Dublin West, said efforts must be made to persuade Fine Gael to drop its support for the construction of private hospitals on public land.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny spoke at a Labour dinner in the Silversprings Hotel in Cork last night, just one week after Mr Rabbitte travelled to Sligo to attend a Fine Gael meeting.
Asked if such moves would annoy traditional Labour voters, Wexford TD Brendan Howlin said they were important for "symbolism" and that FG and Labour had to show unity.
Both leaders emphasised that party negotiators are working hard on agreeing common policies on three areas: health, crime and the economy.
"Where there are differences they will be worked through, as they were before," said Mr Kenny, as he arrived.
Voters will face "a contest between two blocs" next year, Mr Rabbitte said. "The Irish people have a choice where they can vote for more of the same, or they can vote for something better."
Asked if he would consider joining the PDs after the election, Mr Kenny repeatedly insisted that the PDs had "wedded themselves to Fianna Fáil, and they must lie on their own bed. The PDs are part of the Government. Our job is to get that Government out," said Mr Kenny, who insisted that the issue of any alliance with the PDs is "a hypothetical situation".
