The leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabbitte, continued the slow, steady build-up to a general election campaign at his party's annual conference in Dublin. Having secured agreement, last year, for a pre-election pact with Fine Gael, he moved to put some political flesh on the bones of that structure at the weekend.
It wasn't a particularly exciting conference. With an election up to a year away, it was a case of grinding out the ingredients of a new political approach and trying to convince the electorate that life could be better and fairer under a different government. A Government with Labour in the driving seat of change would build a fairer society, Mr Rabbitte said, bring innovation to the industrial sphere and defend the European social democratic model.
In offering change and egalitarianism, however, the party leader anticipated attack from the Government parties and pledged not to raise taxes. He quoted Labour's record in the rainbow coalition as evidence of prudent management. Delegates were offered some new ideas by Mr Rabbitte in a televised address that was both polished and energetic. But the age profile of his front bench is on the wrong side of 50. New blood will be required if younger voters are to be attracted in the election.
Fine Gael and the Labour Party have already produced a number of joint policy documents. That process of cohesion continued as Mr Rabbitte made the creation of a "fair society" his primary objective - a political idea familiar in Fine Gael as their "just society". Creating conditions for an efficient transfer of votes between Labour and Fine Gael may decide the election outcome. In that regard, Mr Rabbitte also engaged in a bit of poaching when he appealed to disillusioned Finna Fáil supporters to vote Labour on this occasion.
Under the slogan "Preparing for Government", the party has identified health, education, crime, transport and childcare as key issues. It offered to improve services while reducing waste. But the programme is short on detail. Mr Rabbitte has the difficult task of persuading voters his ideas are worth supporting, while preventing the Government from stealing his political clothes. In that regard, he spoke of reforming the health system by providing more hospital beds, developing community services and stopping the construction of private clinics in public hospital grounds. He made it clear the public interest will inform Labour's approach to industrial matters when he criticised public service unions on the outsourcing of driving tests.
All in all it was a good conference. Delegates were in good heart and there was a growing appetite to market the benefits of an alternative government. Whether the project bears fruit is another matter for, unless the Labour Party can dramatically increase its level of support, a combination of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party may fail to secure a Dáil majority after the general election. A big challenge lies ahead.