FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin has apologised for the distance that grew between the party leadership and membership during a “long stretch” in government. He also said there was “no way to put a gloss on the election result and it helps no one to try”.
However, Mr Martin insisted there “is a hell of a lot of fight” left in the party and this would not be the generation that abandoned Fianna Fáil.
Mr Martin was addressing his first Cairde Fáil fundraising dinner as party leader. Almost 1,000 people attended the €85-a-head event in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on Saturday night, including a number of former cabinet members and ministers of State.
Former taoisigh Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern did not attend but Mr Martin paid tribute to Mr Cowen for his commitment, loyalty and contribution to the party, saying he believed history would acknowledge Mr Cowen’s leadership and that he had put the country first.
Mr Martin also paid tribute to the late former minister Brian Lenihan for his “huge commitment to the people of Dublin West”. At the dinner, the party’s candidate in the byelection caused by Mr Lenihan’s death was introduced.
David McGuinness, at 25 the youngest Fianna Fáil county councillor in the State, said he had “learned my politics from Brian Lenihan” and from his advice “to never give up”.
In his address, Mr Martin said “the distance which grew during a long stretch in government is something I sincerely regret and am determined to put right”.
He had told members that what was missing for too long was “a genuine dialogue between the members and the parliamentary leadership of Fianna Fáil”.
“The parliamentary party can’t thrive in splendid isolation from the membership. The perspective and the experiences of our grassroots must keep our public representatives grounded and informed.”
He had spent four months travelling around the State to meet party members, to review and renew the party, and “they are up for it. They believe in the Fianna Fáil tradition. They are proud of our service to this nation over 85 years. They are determined that this party will be renewed and they are adamant that this will not be the generation of members which abandons Fianna Fáil, the republican party”.
He said that critics had written off the party and its sense of resolve to rebuild a “great national movement” but “they do so at risk only to their own credibility because there is a hell of a lot of fight still left in this party”.
Mr Martin said a series of radical proposals for reorganisation, with the central idea of empowering the membership, would be voted on at the party’s ardfheis in February.
He also highlighted the party’s role in the peace process: “We have always been a progressive, constitutional republican party and this is hallowed ground which we will never move from.”
He insisted “the peace process which we led marks the absolute victory of constitutional republicanism on this island”.
In recent years “we took major risks to bring the men of violence into democratic politics. The true heroes of the peace process are the Irish people who were willing to open a place for the men of violence to abandon their illegitimate campaign.”
Hitting out at the Government, Mr Martin said the previous government’s budget was “on track and winning international credit, something which Enda Kenny praised himself for this week, ignoring the fact that they actually voted against every part of the budget”.
The reality was that the Government’s only significant fiscal move was the jobs initiative, “which will cost jobs through the imposition of a pension levy”.
