Local election candidates will be on their own, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent
The Taoiseach is banking on economic recovery and successful reforms to save Fianna Fáil before the next general election, but that will be too late for the local elections.
The Taoiseach said it on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night. There would be no grab for short-term popularity before next year's local government elections. The Government was on "a steady course" and would not be deflected and would not "lose our nerve".
It may not be what the dozens of local election candidates in the hall wanted to hear. They will put themselves to the people next year under the banner of a party whose recent opinion poll rating is the lowest it has had in its history.
Party activists experiencing the unfamiliar feeling of unpopularity in the past year may think the "long-term plans" outlined by the Taoiseach are all very well, but long-termism won't win local government seats.
But the Taoiseach said it again and again. "Our focus is on the long term," he said in Saturday night's speech. The speech was peppered with references to "tough choices", "staying the course" and "having the courage to do what is right".
Translated, this means the Government does not see anything coming up in the next year or so that will transform its public popularity. But having lost that popularity through restraining public spending to an extent that surprised very many voters, it will stick to this policy in the hope that, before the next general election, it will reap the electoral reward from being seen to have done the right thing.
Mr Ahern reiterated standard pledges to reform the health service, and to complete major road and rail projects. Again, little will have happened by next May's elections to show voters that these are anything more than ritual pledges. But by the next general election, possibly as far away as 2007, the Government hopes to be able to point to results.
In the meantime, those in his party fearing electoral calamity in local councils around the State next year should get out there and knock on every door in the land, because there was little prospect of a national upswing in party popularity to help them on their way.
In the meantime, Mr Ahern pointed to an Opposition that cannot yet present itself as a coherent alternative government. "Those who lacked the courage or capacity to govern in the 1980s" need not give him any lectures, he said. Slagging off Opposition incoherence has been adopted as a deliberate strategy by Fianna Fáil in recent weeks.
The Government has faced varying degrees of criticism in recent months over the smoking ban, the Laffoy Commission, the Church/ State deal on compensation for institutional abuse victims and other issues. But, in his speech, the Taoiseach was clear that he saw one factor as being at the root of the Government's unpopularity: the state of the economy.
People have lost overtime and bonuses, companies are having it harder, he said. The long-term priorities he outlined concerned increasing Ireland's competitiveness in order to retain jobs and fight inflation. Those who hoard land for housing or work in cosy "privileged professions" must no longer hold the rest of us to ransom. Without being specific, he pledged laws to force developers to make land available for housing.
There will be no pot of gold to provide for extra spending in the short term. Benchmarking salary rises for public servants, worth some €1.1 billion, will be paid. One per cent of GNP would continue to go into the National Pension Reserve Fund.
The one big idea that emerged at the weekend was that of a National Infrastructure Board. This would make delays shorter and decisions faster. Beyond the news that this would be a "one-stop shop and a sole decision maker for major projects of national importance", the details were not spelt out.
The health services will be reformed, smoking will be banned in the workplace. The old-age pension would rise from €157 to €200 at least during this Government's lifetime. There will be levies on take aways, chewing gum and ATM receipts to match the successful one on plastic bags.
The Ardfheis brought stage management of grassroots political events to a new level. Motions at Fianna Fáil Ardfheiseanna have always been of the self-congratulatory type, with contentious issues rarely making it to the conference agenda.
This time, however, the party dispensed with motions altogether. Instead, Ministers made speeches outlining their achievements and future ambitious programmes. Each Cabinet member then hosted a short session in which he or she answered questions from delegates - who had been requested to tell organisers in advance what they planned to ask. A very high proportion of the questioners selected were local election candidates who, if they were interesting or lively enough, just might get some television exposure.
The fanciful notion that a revolt on the smoking ban would become apparent was quickly shown to be the wishful thinking of ban opponents. One questioner enthusiastically supported the ban, another wanted to retain smoking areas in pubs for a two-year period. The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, repeated that there would be no compromise and got substantial applause. This issue, long portrayed in some quarters as the harbinger of a "grassroots revolt", appears well and truly over.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, demanded that insurance companies cut premiums to reflect falling claims and rising profits. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, promised legislation to simplify the planning process.
There was one significant nod to backbench concerns, with the Taoiseach telling reporters he favoured allowing people from families in certain rural areas build one-off houses in the countryside in which to live.
"Some people would like to go a lot further than I would," he said, suggesting he did not support those who wanted to see large-scale one-off house building, which critics say despoils the countryside and puts huge cost burdens on local authorities, who are required to give them water and sewerage services.
Mr Cullen hinted at more relaxed criteria than those suggested by the Taoiseach. "If someone has roots in an area and makes an economic contribution to an area, then they are entitled to live there and build a house there," he said.
In further crowd-pleasing remarks to the delegates in Killarney, he suggested those with concerns over such one-off houses were people who lived in an "ivory tower", and that he would not allow them "to dictate to the people of rural Ireland".
With the Taoiseach and Mr Cullen joining the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Eámon Ó Cuív, in support of changing planning practice on this issue, a contentious debate on these changes is likely to get under way.
This issue is raised regularly with Fianna Fáil backbench TDs by their constituents and, in turn, raised by the TDs at the parliamentary party. The leadership's apparent sympathy with this cause is one of the few short-term comforts on offer to the activists right now.