The Fine Gael Party has begun the process of positioning itself for the coming general election and its leader, Mr Michael Noonan, will be both relieved and satisfied by the way in which the ardfheis was conducted at the weekend. This time last year, the function was cancelled because of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and a Dublin-based conference, with much smaller numbers, replaced it.
It failed to provide Mr Noonan with an effective launch platform for his leadership and, since then, he and his party have languished in the opinion polls. That may be about to change. Fine Gael's strength is greatest in rural Ireland and the delegates who turned out at the weekend from Munster, Leinster and Connacht did not have an air of defeat about them. Of course they recognized the difficulties confronting the party in winning extra seats, but they seemed prepared to work hard and to take on Fianna Fáil.
Mr Noonan's call to arms on Friday night, when he challenged the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to call an immediate general election, set the tone. By Saturday, real enthusiasm was evident as party spokesmen concentrated on the economic and social failures of the Government and began to offer their own solutions on return to office. In his presidential address, Mr Noonan offered a vision of a forward-looking, generous and compassionate Ireland where community needs were recognised and provided for and where everyone had access to education, housing, health care and dignity in old age. It was an up-to-date version of the Just Society but, as in the 1960's, awkward questions about how it might be funded were fudged.
Both Mr Noonan and the Fine Gael spokesman on finance, Mr Jim Mitchell, excoriated the Government for its profligate spending. Last year, they pointed out, public expenditure had risen by 22 per cent while Government income had increased by only 2 per cent. This had happened in spite of Mr McCreevy's commitment to hold public expenditure to 4 per cent a year. While Mr Mitchell warned of the need for a sharp reduction in current expenditure, his colleagues spoke of expanding social services and of recognising the contributions being made by teachers, nurses, doctors, post office workers, gardai and refuse collectors. Small Eircom investors would be given tax-breaks, but the party had no plans to raise income, capital or corporate taxes.
As for next month's abortion referendum, the Fine Gael leader insisted it would introduce uncertainty into the Constitution and should be rejected out of hand. He challenged the Taoiseach to debate the issue on television before going on to apologise to the McCole family for the grief he had caused, as minister, through his handling of Hepatitis C cases. From there, Fine Gael sought to re-establish itself as the party of law and order and was highly critical of the Government's record. The ardfheis had all the ingredients of an election rally. But its long-term effectiveness has yet to be tested.