Harry McGee: Fianna Fáil’s renewal more rhetoric than reality

All of Fianna Fáil’s 21 TDs are male and not one of them lives in Dublin. The average age of 52 is hardly youthful. Only three of its TDs are in their 30s; seven are in the 40s and the remaining 11 are in their 50s and 60s.

With Averil Power’s departure, there is only one woman (Mary White) among its team of 13 in the Seanad; there are also only two Dublin-based Senators, her and Darragh O’Brien. The average age of its Senators is 55 and five are in their late 60s or early 70s.

When the social outlook of its 34 parliamentarians is assessed, it is clear there is a majority conservative outlook. Perhaps 17 – half of the total – could be regarded as socially conservative with only nine of its members (including party leader Micheál Martin) having a more liberal outlook. A further eight would be seen as in the centre ground.

Transport spokesman, Timmy Dooley TD had to agree with a reporter yesterday who characterised the parliamentary party as "male, stale and outside the Pale".

Martin is trying to modernise the party, promote women candidates and invoke values that correspond more to 2015 than to the last century. He is dealing with the kind of sclerosis the Tories had in the 1990s when Eurosceptics blocked the modernisers.

Fianna Fáil refers to renewal all the time, but it has been a tedious and inchoate process. "One member, one vote" has come into being but the party's efforts to increase the representation of women has hardly been stellar. It did succeed in getting a small number of promising women councillors elected but it's nowhere near its own targets.

Early on Martin realised he needed to speak with forked tongue to the younger generation he wanted to join, as well as to its older conservative base.

There were fault lines there, such as when he tried to promote young candidates for the Seanad, including Power. He also had to concede a free vote on abortion when it became clear only six of his TDs would back the legislation.

Crisis

There is no quick fix for its existential crisis. Former TD

Chris Flood

says it will take two election cycles, perhaps three.

“We are a very traditional and conservative party,” said one of its younger TDs. “There was always going to be some tension between those who wanted reform and those who were reluctant to move as quickly. The realpolitik is if you move too quickly, you lose some of your core support.”

The level of canvassing Power sought for a Yes vote was not “realistic” in a party where most of its representatives were natural No voters.

Power’s dramatic exit took the shine off Fianna Fáil’s byelection victory but the spirited nature of yesterday’s party meeting suggests the troops will rally behind Martin.

But rally to what? The party has spoken of being radical and imaginative, of forging a new politics, but there’s little evidence of it beyond the rhetoric. It lacks policy and a message that tells voters what the party stands for.