ECONOMIC ISSUES, the health service and the Lisbon Treaty will dominate discussion at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party “think-in” to be held at the Clayton Hotel in Galway on Monday and Tuesday.
Sports commentator Michéal Ó Muircheartaigh will be the guest speaker at dinner on Monday night. A party spokesman said the prominent broadcaster’s remarks would be of a general nature but would probably touch on politics.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen will address the party’s TDs and Senators in a private session on Monday morning which will not be open to the media. The text of the speech will be distributed but a spokesman stressed it would not be a “state of the nation” address. Press conferences will be held on each of the two days.
The guest speakers at a special session on the economy on Monday will be Prof Philip Lane of the Institute for International Integration Studies at Trinity College Dublin; Dr Alan Ahearne, lecturer in economics at NUI Galway; and Galway-based businessman Gerry Kilcommins, with a closing statement by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.
Minister of State Dick Roche will chair a discussion on the EU and the Lisbon Treaty, entitled Defining Ireland’s Future in Europe. It will be addressed by Prof Richard Sinnott, Prof Brigid Laffan and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.
A session on the health service on Tuesday morning will be chaired by Minister of State John Moloney. Speakers include Dr Garry Courtney of St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, and neurologist Dr Colin Doherty of St James’s Hospital, Dublin.
The final session, on next summer’s European and local elections, will be led by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and Fianna Fáil general secretary Seán Dorgan.