The Party’s over
09 November 2008As the PDs vote for extinction, its four parliamentary party members must now consider their options, writes Niamh Connolly, Political Correspondent.
Senior figures in the Progressive Democrats yesterday persuaded a majority of the party members to back their view that the party should be wound up, despite a last-ditch effort by some grassroots members to keep the party alive.
The four Oireachtas members – two TDs and two senators - won the vote at yesterday’s special party meeting by a narrow but decisive 201 to 161 votes.
The Oireachtas members - PD leader and Senator Ciaran Cannon, former leader Mary Harney, Galway East deputy Noel Grealish and Senator Fiona O’Malley - urged an honourable passing for the party that they believed had no future.
A formal announcement will be made by the Oireachtas members on their future plans after this week’s parliamentary party meeting.
There was passion and recrimination expressed in equal measure at the conference attended by some 500 delegates; tributes to the PDs’’ ‘honourable legacy’’ but criticism of the parliamentary party for attempting to wind up the party in September without consulting the wider membership.
But yesterday, grassroots members had their say in an exhaustive debate, with up to 80 contributions from the floor from councillors, activists and members. In his 15-minute address to the conference, Cannon said the ‘‘cold hard statistics’’ showed that the PDs had not once increased its share of the first preference vote in an election since it was launched.
He said that PD support had dwindled from a 15 per cent share in its first election to 2.7 per cent in 2007. ‘‘This is a downward trend that one would expect to continue and, rather than allow the party limp on and fade into oblivion, it’s important to honour the legacy, be proud of what we have achieved and bring the party to a dignified end," he said.
Last week, Cannon signalled that he would resign from the party, even if the members voted against its dissolution. He said he had concluded that the PDs did not have the strong grassroots structures needed to relaunch, based on his discussions with councillors and members across the country.
Although he took up the leadership in March, he expressed the view that a decision to disband the PDs should have been taken immediately after the general election. ‘‘We should have left the stage with dignity, rather than ignore the facts," he said.
Des O’Malley, the party’s founder, sent a message to the conference adding his voice to the list of senior figures calling for an end to the PDs.
O’Malley said the PD’s demise was ‘‘a grievous disappointment to me but it is a situation I have to face up to’’. He paid tribute to colleagues Bobby Molloy, Pearse Wyse, Maureen Quill, Liz O’Donnell, John Dardis, Peadar Clohessy ‘‘but above all I salute Mary Harney’’.
As well as Micheal McDowell, former members who did not attend included Liz O’Donnell, former Cork senator John Minihan and former deputy TimO’Malley.
Harney received a standing ovation from many delegates and was credited with changing the mood on the floor from one of anger to support when she reminded party activists of the road travelled by the party, according to those present.
She said there was ‘‘nothing dishonourable about opening a new chapter’’ and urged supporters not to continue the party ‘‘only to be ridiculed’’. The debate was described as ‘‘passionate but dignified’’ although raised voices were heard as people vented their annoyance.
Former party leader Michael McDowell was not present but some members attributed the party’s failures in part to his leadership.
Coaches full of party activists arrived from the O’Malley stronghold of Limerick and Cork as well as the Galway support base of Grealish and Cannon. ‘‘They’re shipping them in," snorted one activist from Young Progressive Democrats.
The delegates ranging in age and political experience arrived in numbers. Stephen Fitzpatrick, theYoung Progressive Democrats’ Dublin chairman said he was undecided on entering the conference and would listen with interest to the proposed survival plan. He later supported Harney.
Party representatives opposed to the winding up of the party included Fergus McDonnell, Brigid Teefy, Paul Mitchell, former senator Tom Morrissey and Teresa O’Brien. But it was a gloomy occasion for many party activists who had dedicated many years to the party during its 23-year history and were reluctant to let go.
‘‘No tears, no regret," said one of the party’s elder statesmen, Martin O’Donoghue. O’Donoghue, previously a minister for economic development in a Fianna Fáil government under Jack Lynch, said he was ‘‘of course’’ supporting Mary Harney’s call for a dignified exit.
‘‘There’s still a role for a party like the PDs but they haven’t succeeded in attracting young candidates because the party was so decimated at the last election, they haven’t done the work on the ground," he told this newspaper.
The conference heard staunch resistance to the party’s dissolution, from sections that included Limerick members in the constituency of former PD deputy Tim O’Malley.
Limerick businessman and former national executive member Tadhg Kearney said that people felt let down by a parliamentary party that seemed to regard its membership as ‘‘a peripheral supporters’ club, rather than full stakeholders in their own party’’.
Kearney said that the public needed a liberal party like the PDs now more than ever, with a recession and the onset of higher taxes.
He questioned whether it could continue without a parliamentary party and urged an exploration of all the options.
‘‘There are those of us who believe that the Progressive Democrats departing the political stage is not in the national interest," he said.
He warned that, with the PDs out of the picture, the only coalition options for Fianna Fáil would be Labour, Sinn Féin and the Greens, whom he described as all parties of the left, ‘‘or, in the case of Sinn Féin, the extreme left.
‘‘With the demise of the PDs, there will be no centre right/liberal option,’’ Kearney said.
The former TD Mairin Quill said that she was not convinced by the members who wanted to keep the party going.
‘‘I know the reality of the electoral battle out there and when I see the experience of the people who wanted to keep going I thought it would be a journey too far,’’ Quill said.
Following the vote, all the PD deputies are looking towards the next phase of their careers. The most senior figure in the party, health minister Harney, indicated her belief last Friday that she had no future in the PDs, even if members voted for the party to continue. Grealish’s move to Fianna Fáil has already been arranged, though he agreed that no formal announcement would be made until this week’s parliamentary party meeting.
Some PD councillors have moved to the independent benches, and those who don’t join the ranks of independents are likely to be scooped up by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Cannon said yesterday that the parliamentary party would meet this week to assess the implications of the vote.
Cannon is considered closer in social and economic policy to Fine Gael than Fianna Fáil, though he confirmed yesterday he had been approached by both parties.
Although a Taoiseach’s nominee, he said there was a precedence for nominees to cross the floor to join the opposition, but stressed he had made no decision.
The future status of Harney as an independent minister in cabinet is not seen by Brian Cowen as an obstacle to retaining her health portfolio, according to sources. In 1981, former Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald took the unusual step of appointing a senator, James Dooge, to the foreign affairs ministry.
Last Friday, Cowen said that Harney had his full support and confidence as Minister for Health, despite recent budget controversies, including the axing of the cervical cancer vaccination programme for young girls which was announced last week.
New technical arrangements may have to be established for Harney to remain in cabinet as an independent minister, since the Programme for Government was signed by the PDs, as well as Fianna Fáil and the Greens.
Meanwhile the opposition will seek to exploit the issue. O’Malley is likely to find a home with Fianna Fáil. But she is not now expected to be on the ticket in Dublin South, as had been suggested, for a by-election to fill the seat of the late Fianna Fáil TD Séamus Brennan. Dublin South is a crowded field, with the late TD’s son, Shay Brennan, Senator Maria Corrigan and local councillor John Lahart all in the running for the seat.
There is also internal friction in the local Fianna Fáil organisation in Galway over Grealish’s admission to the ticket ahead of Fianna Fáil councilor Michael Crowe.
Breaking the political mould for the last time
The PDs were founded in the turbulent 1980s amid economic downturn and furious debates about the future of the country.
The catalyst for the party’s launch was Des O’Malley’s expulsion from Fianna Fáil. Disenchantment with the party’s economic and social policies as well as its position on the North prompted him to form a new party in 1985.
The PDs’ stalwarts included Mary Harney and Bobby Molloy, and many of the party’s ideological positions were advanced by Michael McDowell. An unknown Fine Gael activist at the time, McDowell encouraged O’Malley to strike out on his own.
The PDs adopted socially and fiscally liberal policies that they claimed ‘‘broke the mould’’ of Irish politics at the time. The PDs pioneered a policy of low taxation, free-market economics and reform of the state sector.
Its first general election in 1987 saw the party win 14 seats, but this dwindled to six in 1989. That election also saw the party enter coalition government with Fianna Fáil, the first time the larger party had formally shared power. Despite tensions between the PDs and Fianna Fáil, the government lasted until 1992. The 1992 general election saw its seats increase from six to ten, but its next five years were in opposition.
After the Reynolds government collapsed in 1992, O’Malley stood down, opening up divisions in the party. Harney became leader after beating the challenge of Cork TD Pat Cox, who went on to have a successful career in the European Parliament.
It suffered badly in the 1997 election, taking only four seats, but returned to power and wielded considerable influence as a coalition partner in Bertie Ahern’s new government.
Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McCreevy became finance minister and systematically cut taxes to promote economic growth. McCreevy enjoyed a close rapport with Harney and the PDs throughout the Celtic Tiger years. After the 2002 general election, the coalition was returned and the PDs increased their number of seats to eight.
McCreevy departed for Brussels in 2004, depriving the PDs of a key ally. Under pressure, Harney stepped down as leader in 2006 and was succeeded by McDowell. McDowell lacked the popular appeal of his predecessors as party leader and failed to show leadership on controversies over Ahern’s personal finances.
Fianna Fáil managed to take much of the credit for economic success and adopt some of the party’s policies into its own agenda. The 2007 general election saw the party’s representation shrink to two seats. McDowell was among the casualties and promptly retired from politics, leaving Harney as a reluctant caretaker leader.
The subsequent election of Senator Ciaran Cannon as the new party leader could not forestall the party’s decline, leaving the PDs in disarray and elected representatives looking to join other parties.
In September, the four parliamentary party members announced their belief that the PDs had no viable future and should be dissolved.
Dick O’Brien