With the general election expected to be called in less than a fortnight, there is one thing on the minds of politicians: victory.
Behind every constituency battle exists a team of party strategists in election war rooms. The finishing touches were this week being put on manifestos, slogans, and campaign strategies. But who are the teams inside those war rooms, and what’s the big plan?
Fine Gael
The party has appointed former Laois-Offaly TD Olwyn Enright as the director of elections, after she was last summer appointed as the organisational director. Hers is a key post, as she has overall responsibility for the election campaign across the country.
Enright, a TD from 2002 to 2011, is across party messaging, strategy and campaigning and has been travelling the country in recent months smoothing over local issues and convincing candidates to run. Some within Fine Gael took her appointment as a sign of Simon Harris stamping his mark on the party and ushering out the organisational structures that once surrounded former taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
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Former EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has also been drafted in as an election strategist, and he sits on an internal election committee. It wasn’t long ago that Hogan was engaged in a public falling out with Varadkar over his attendance at a controversial Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in Galway during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dublin South-West TD Colm Brophy is also on the back room team while former MEP and minister Frances Fitzgerald is also pitching in.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys, who is stepping away from the political stage, is also in the election war room as is Joanne Lonergan, an adviser to the Taoiseach. Lonergan worked with Harris when he was minister for health and went on to become a PR consultant before being brought back into the fold.
General secretary John Carroll is also part of the election team.
Fine Gael is bullish about its electoral chances, even running four candidates in places like Mayo. Normally, a political party would game-plan the leader’s movements throughout every day of the campaign as part of a “leader’s tour” of the country. Like other leaders, however, Harris has been out canvassing all summer. Expect the party’s general election slogan to be something adjacent to the “new energy” it has been talking about for the last few months. As for messaging, expect to hear a lot about the impact of Budget 2025 on people’s pockets.
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil has appointed Minister for Finance Jack Chambers as its director of elections, as party strategists believe he did a decent job in the same role for the local and European elections.
Then, Fianna Fáil narrowly won the battle to become the biggest party of local government, securing 248 seats compared to Fine Gael’s 245.
Like Olwyn Enright in Fine Gael, Chambers will be travelling the length and breadth of the country in anticipation of the start of the campaign. It’s understood that former minister for transport Noel Dempsey, who was a Fianna Fáil TD between 1987 and 2011 and held several ministries including transport, is also a key part of the team along with assistant general secretary Darragh McShea and Minister of State in the Department of Justice James Browne.
Siobhán Russell, a former RTÉ and Virgin Media producer, is heading up communications while key advisers Deirdre Gillane and Pat McParland are also part of the war room effort.
Gillane is the top party adviser, while McParland, who served as deputy general secretary for communications and policy during the final months of Brian Cowen’s government, is also a veteran.
Then there is Peter MacDonagh, a long time party adviser who worked with Micheál Martin when he first started in Cabinet in 1997. Nicknamed the Child of Prague as he based himself in the Czech city, he is also highly involved.
The party’s general election slogan will be “Moving Forward. Together.” In a hint as to how Fianna Fáil will distinguish itself from Fine Gael, a source said that during the campaign, politicians will emphasise the portfolios that Fianna Fáil took on, namely the key areas of housing and health. It’s the subtlest of digs.
“Every party has to fight the election on its own two feet, and that’s what we will do. We have a story to tell here. There will be no voting pacts, and we will point towards the troubling areas that we were happy to take on,” a senior source said.
Sinn Féin
Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy was recently appointed as director of elections. He held the same role in the 2016 general election, and is now a key figure in making the call around the final number of candidates.
Sinn Féin was accused of running too few candidates ahead of their historic gains in 2020, only to be accused of running too many candidates in the 2024 local elections when the party took less than 12 per cent of the national vote.
Carthy and other strategists will wait until closer to the start of the campaign (and until opinion polls around that tine) to decide exactly how many candidates to run. At present, it looks as though the final number will land somewhere in the mid-60s.
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald has been travelling the country meeting local party members and candidates and taking the temperature in recent weeks and months. Deputy Dáil leader Pearse Doherty is also pitching in on the organisational side, along with incoming general secretary Sam Baker and head of communications Robbie Smyth.
Senior TDs such as Eoin Ó Broin and Louise O’Reilly are also feeding into preparations. Sinn Féin is currently finalising its manifesto and party slogan, and it will be interesting to see if they stick with the 2020 message of change.
Green Party
Party leader Roderic O’Gorman is leading the charge along with general secretary Maura Rose McMahon, communications chief Tom Molloy, deputy Government press secretary Aiden Corkery and the joint chiefs of staff Anna Conlon and Dónall Geoghegan.
Among the parliamentary party, Senator Róisín Garvey and chair Pauline O’Reilly are also part of the election war room.
A party source said the last touches are being put on the general election manifesto.
“We are a party of policy wonks, so the document is policy-rich. Six months ago the conversation was that it would be a choice between a Sinn Féin-led government or one led by the Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. That conversation has changed. Now people are wondering who will go in with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and that’s what we think the election will be fought on,” said the strategist.
Labour
The Labour Party has a spring in its step after a better than expected performance in this summer’s local and European elections. The party’s election war room is in its HQ on Aungier Street in Dublin, but policy launches will take place in different locations around the country.
Inside the war room, officials such as general secretary Billie Sparks are leading the election efforts. She is joined by Clodagh Bergin who is managing communications and Cathal McCann who is leading on political strategy.
National organiser Aideen Blackwood is managing issues on the ground while the party has also hired political consultant Paul Daly to bring new candidates up to speed on policies and communications.
Labour’s manifesto is also complete and its slogan is set. It is “Building Better Together” – a nod to the housing crisis and the party’s trade union links and history.
Social Democrats
The election war room effort in the Social Democrats is being led by general secretary Sabrina Ryan and former journalist Colette Browne, who is the political and communications director. Vic Duggan is the party’s director of strategy while Eamon Murphy is feeding into preparations as a policy director.
Others
Among the other smaller parties, the People Before Profit (PBP) election war room is made up of TDs Richard Boyd-Barrett and Paul Murphy, director of elections and TD Bríd Smith, national secretary Kieran Allen, national organiser Darryl Horan, and Councillors Melisa Halpin and Madeleine Johansson. They have two slogans: “Another Ireland is Possible” and “End 100 Years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.”
PBP plans to put forward a candidate in nearly every constituency.
In Independent Ireland, three TDs are leading the charge: Cork South West TD Michael Collins, Roscommon Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice and Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue. Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín is taking the helm for his party’s election efforts.
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