Labour Party meeting/Analysis: Labour has to put forward its own identity and yet keep relations with Fine Gael smooth, writes Mark Hennessy.
Standing before Labour Party TDs and other general election candidates late on Monday night in the Silversprings Hotel in Cork, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny struck all the right notes.
Saying that Labour and Fine Gael are united in "a joint mission", he spoke of the depth of his relations with Labour going back to his Dáil by-election victory in 1975 when Labour and Fine Gael ministers canvassed for him.
Without Labour, Kenny is going nowhere, and he knows it. However, he is going out of his way, and risking his own standing as a party leader, by being prepared to show it, to let Labour people know of his gratitude.
And he needs to do so. Historically, Labour's experience in government with Fine Gael has been fraught with tensions - bar the 1994/1997 Rainbow, and sometimes not even then - with Labour feeling they were second-class citizens. Even so, many in Labour are concerned. Dublin South candidate Aidan Culhane spoke for some by voicing his fears that Fine Gael under Kenny is overshadowing Labour.
Others are, perhaps, having an each-way bet, knowing that Labour leader Pat Rabbitte's position will be under threat if his decision to tie Labour so closely to Fine Gael does not work.
Clearly, Rabbitte's relationship with his flock is riddled with fault lines, though, to be fair, a Labour leader's lot has never been a very happy one in an organisation that is often unruly, troublesome and difficult to lead. In 2002, Fine Gael dived to earth in flames, principally because of its own weaknesses compared with a slick Fianna Fáil machine, but, also, because it could not present a credible alternative government.
Thanks to Rabbitte's risk-taking, FG and Labour are closer to being able to do so, though the Irish Examiner/Lansdowne opinion poll, putting Labour on 10 per cent, caused wobbles within Labour yesterday.
Some, though, have genuine difficulties with the tactics being employed by Rabbitte, if not with the strategy agreed by an overwhelming margin in the Tralee conference in May 2005. Currently, leading figures on both sides are negotiating three pre-election pacts on health, crime and the economy, to be released in stages between now and early next year.
So far, two documents have been produced: one on the need for getting better value for money from public service spending, and, more recently, another on the need for investment on better mental health services.
Though neither of these caused rifts within Labour, the lack of consultation in advance with the Parliamentary Labour Party has caused fears that problems could arise when more contentious matters reach the table.
For Fine Gael and Labour to pose as a stable, alternative government, they must be united on the major issues, otherwise they will be damaged by Fianna Fáil's charge that a vote for either of them is a risk that voters should not take.
However, Labour must also strike its own positions, to drive home the message that not only should voters reject Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, but that they should also opt for Labour over Fine Gael.
Promising that FG and Labour would "work out" solutions on issues where they are divided in "a spirit of co-operation", Kenny urged his coalition partners to keep their eye on the bigger prize.
"We have the opportunity, thanks to economic prosperity, that was denied to our predecessors to do the things that we truly believe to be right, to build a just and fair society," he declared. Soft words, however, will curry little favour with outgoing Labour TDs and candidates in the months ahead if Labour does not begin to show some rise in its poll ratings.
Currently, Labour is bidding to win 30 seats, with gains, it believes, coming in "battleground constituencies" such as Meath East, Cork South West, and Tipperary South, Dublin South Central, Dublin South and Dublin Mid-West. Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery has said FG can rise so high without inflicting serious Labour losses. Few in Labour believe it. It is doubtful that even Flannery does.
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