ANALYSIS: After four years of meticulous planning, Fianna Fáil is running its election campaign with military precision. Alison O'Connor reports
P.J. Mara swears this is his last election.
He will be able to look back with some pride and satisfaction on the service he has given to Fianna Fáil. This campaign looks set to be his finest hour.
The old Fianna Fáil headquarters in Upper Mount Street in Dublin had a mews in the garden. Traditionally, during election time it would be filled with volunteer barrister types, looking for briefs and future promotion to the bench. They would answer the phone and monitor the radios.
They are nowhere in evidence now. This is a professional and slick campaign. There is no room for enthusiastic amateurs.
"We knew we had to be fast out of the traps and show we were still a campaign force; that the sclerosis that can set in while in government was not there," explained a party strategist.
"There is a master plan which was worked out well in advance; and a grid upon which every day is based and what the message of that day is. The Taoiseach is on the road all the time, but he signed off on everything in advance."
Responsibility for the success of this campaign is shared mostly by P.J. and party general secretary Martin Mackin. The two men, who have a good relationship, held their first meeting about this general election almost four years ago in the autumn of 1998.
They began looking at possible candidates, vote management (which had worked so successfully for the party in 1997) and had research carried out on various issues. They arranged numerous focus groups and commissioned hundreds of opinion polls of the constituencies. Finally, on April 25th, the day Fianna Fáil published its manifesto, the well-laid plans were put into action. It was an over-eager start, and they got up the noses of many journalists who accused the party of trying to "over-manage" them.
The Fianna Fáil day begins with a meeting of key campaign personnel at 7 a.m. in party headquarters. It lasts no longer than 50 minutes. Mackin hosts with tea and coffee; Mara, the director of elections, chairs the session. This is a mixed group representing the different strands of the party.
The "Drumcondra mafia", as those close to the Taoiseach are known, are represented by former party fund-raiser Des Richardson, and national executive member Chris Wall. They have often been canvassing with Bertie the night before and, as one source put it: "They'll say to P.J. the things that Bertie doesn't have the nerve to! P.J. is about the only one that Bertie does not leave in the dark - he just wouldn't allow it."
The Taoiseach's senior advisers attend. Programme manager Gerry Hickey, who was also involved in the pre-planning stage; Gerry Howlin, Peter McDonagh, Brian Murphy and Mandy Johnston, press officer for the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, are there. Former adviser Jackie Gallagher has also attended.
The views of the politicians are also deemed as important. There to give that perspective are David Andrews and Chris Flood. Both are retiring but are involved in the campaign.
Former general secretary Pat Farrell attends before heading off to join the Taoiseach's around-thecountry dash, of which he is tour manager. The meeting goes through the events of the day before, including the morning's media coverage and news from the campaign trail. The "message of the day" is signed off.
From here most members of that group take the short walk down to Grand Canal Street towards the Fianna Fáil election headquarters in the Treasury Building. Around 30 people are working on the election campaign there every day. Located on the first floor, they share space with a Whirlpool showroom with its washing machines, dishwashers and other electrical white goods.
At the end of the room where the daily media briefings take place a chipboard wall, covered in the FF colours, separates off the rest of the operation. Behind the door and down the corridor is a big open-plan room. This is the nerve centre of the entire operation. Sitting around a large square table in the middle of the room are the people making the decisions.
Mara is here, as is Martin Mackin. Gerry Hickey has a seat. They are joined by the other senior advisers. The have all taken holidays from their jobs in Government Buildings.
Having such personnel available is a distinct advantage which Fianna Fáil has over the Opposition, not to mention the far larger election budget available to them.
There are some creative tensions between what is perceived as the "old Fianna Fáil" and the clean-cut "West Wing" element.
P.J. Mara gives his services free. However, it should be pointed out that Charlie Haughey's former government press secretary has amassed considerable wealth as a public affairs consultant, using his Fianna Fáil contacts at the highest levels.
Nothing goes out from the Fianna Fáil election headquarters unless it passes this central desk. Nobody is allowed in this room who isn't a "player"; there are no hangers-on.
The press desk, staffed by about a dozen people, is involved in the business of what Mackin has described as "pre-buttal and rebuttal" with national and local media. Another group sit at a research desk in a different part of the room. There is a bank of television sets and radios.
In a separate room on the other side of the washing-machine showroom is the media-monitoring unit. Eoin O'Shea, a young man in his 20s, and the founder of the Campus.ie website, supervises a team of people plugged into radio, television and the Internet.
Every hour, 15 minutes after the hour, he delivers a summary of the headlines from the various news bulletins. The same is done for regional radio on a three-hourly basis. Some regional stations are available on the Internet; others are monitored at local level.
It is no coincidence that the operation bears some resemblance to that run by New Labour at Millbank. As part of the preparation Mackin and Peter McDonagh travelled there to see the masters at work.
Once the press conference is over and the media disappear, there is a 10.30 a.m. meeting to discuss what the other parties have said at their morning briefings.
From the early afternoon, according to one source, is the "rebuttal time". This effectively involves trying to rubbish what the Opposition has been saying.
Around 5 p.m. a group headed by P.J. arrives in the political correspondents' room in Leinster House. The briefings are really more about trying to find out what the journalists are thinking rather than further elucidation of Fianna Fáil policy issues.
At 6.30 p.m. the senior group gathers again to discuss the day, including canvass reports and how successful the "message management" has been. Regular contact is kept with the Taoiseach on the road, mainly through Martin Mackin or Gerry Hickey.
A new topic is chosen to give to radio stations to use overnight. Things begin to quieten down after 9 p.m., but the centre is manned for 24 hours.