Labour advisers discuss election manifesto

Senior Labour Party figures last week discussed how to differentiate themselves from Fine Gael in the event of a general election caused by the collapse of the Coalition.

Sources in the party said the advisers to senior Ministers did not talk about the timing of any general election if they pulled out of Government, but did discuss some practicalities of the election which would follow.

This included the difficulty of drawing up a manifesto with policies that could be pitched as distinctly Labour, particularly in the aftermath of being in a Coalition with Fine Gael which stuck to the bailout targets laid down by the troika.

Water charges
There is a regular meeting of Labour advisers on Wednesdays, and one took place last week in the aftermath of the details of water charges emerging, which sparked a row within the Coalition.

Water charges were also being discussed that day at a special Cabinet meeting, which saw clashes between Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Labour felt Fine Gael was bouncing it into a decision on water charges, with the junior Coalition partner insisting no agreement had yet been reached on the issue.

The advisers’ meeting is usually led by one of Mr Gilmore’s staff, and is attended by a handful of people. It was held at the same time as the Cabinet meeting with a “50-50” view on whether the Government would last the day.

While there was scepticism in political circles about the scale of the crisis, those in Labour insist the future of the Coalition was in doubt. “That’s how these things start, people feel they are being backed into a corner,” said one figure.

According to senior Labour sources there was no discussion on “when an election would be held” at the advisers’ meeting but on areas such as “practicalities around a manifesto” and “what would a manifesto look like”.

One claimed it was Mr Kenny’s “gross mismanagement that brought us to the edge”.

The manifesto discussions focused on “what would be in it and how we could be distinctive” after three years of Coalition Government, mostly following the EU-IMF bailout and administering austerity.

Separately, a new statement of the Coalition’s aims to try and refocus after months of political tension is seen as more likely than a renegotiation of the programme for government.

Sources within Labour said a full-scale renegotiation of the programme for government would be more problematic and has the potential for even more rows.

Any reassessment of the Coalition's aims is likely to happen after the local and European elections, as well as the possible scheduling of two byelections, on May 23rd.

'Statement of aims'
"A new statement of aims is preferable to a full-blown programme for government, which could get bogged down in precisely the rows we are witnessing," a senior source said, while adding there had been "nothing concrete" discussed yet.

“But that discussion needs to start soon. The Government will last the full term but a major reset in terms of substance, presentation and personnel, both staff and Ministers, is now unavoidable for the Government to recover. The budget, for example, won’t pass without that.”