PARTY REFORM:THE LABOUR Party must significantly reform its organisation and rules, including its ties to trades unions and its selection of candidates, if it is to compete with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the party leader, Eamon Gilmore declared.
A commission headed by Greg Sparks is currently drafting proposals that would strengthen the influence of the party leader and the parliamentary party, which are to go before a conference next March.
The publication of the document, which had been scheduled to happen in September, was delayed after some trades unions objected to plans to break the decades-old formal links between the unions and the party.
Mr Gilmore, who is known to believe that unions ignore Labour unless it is in government, said: “I want to be very clear. I want trades unions and trades unions’ support and I want it reflected at the ballot box in elections.”
Under the proposals, the party’s 34-strong National Executive Council (NEC), which represents all strands in the party, would be abolished and replaced by a small executive committee and a larger national council representing each constituency.
The role of the general secretary would also change. In future, this person would be directly appointed by the leader, and not by the NEC, while the post of party president would be abolished once Galway West TD, Michael D Higgins’s term ends.
Meanwhile, the powers of constituency organisations to decide on candidates would be reduced, with party headquarters assuming new powers to vet prospective candidates and decide on a short-list of names to go before constituency conventions.
During yesterday’s hour-long debate, some delegates were unhappy that they were being asked to discuss a report that they had not seen, and questioned whether they would be able to amend the final document when it goes before the March conference in Mullingar.
While Mr Sparks said a final decision about amendments would be made by the NEC, he indicated that they are unlikely to accepted: “I have to say that there are balances in the report. If you make one change you might end up impacting on another change.”
Saying that all members of the party contributed to it, delegate Ita Gannon said, to applause from some others: “I am slightly afraid that professional politicians may be becoming more important in Labour”.
However, former Cork-based senator Brendan Ryan said Labour members traditionally have not trusted the Parliamentary Labour Party: “It really is time that we have moved on from that. If we want leadership then we have to let the leader lead.”
