The Labour Party will not enter a formal alliance with Fine Gael during the life of the next Dáil, the newly-elected leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore, has said.
Speaking shortly after he was elected without a vote, Mr Gilmore insisted that he intended "to lead Labour as an independent party, to build up the Labour Party independently".
"There will not be formal alliances with any party. We will make our own case and develop our own party. We will be distinctive, we will be different and vigorous," he said.
Setting a target of 30 Dáil seats in the next election, Mr Gilmore warned the party that it will have to reorganise itself before selecting the strongest possible team of local election candidates.
"There is the idea that people have some idea of what Labour is against, but aren't quite clear about what we are for. So we have got to be a lot more positive in what we are saying.
"We have loads of policies; loads of things to say on the issues of the day. But, unfortunately, the people who need to hear those messages don't hear what we are saying about them," he said.
"I sometimes hear from people who apply to join the Labour Party that they turn up at a meeting; that sometimes the methods of organisation and style are a bit old-fashioned.
"Sometimes they are not made feel terribly welcome; they feel that there is a closed circle that they find difficult to break into," he said, promising "a new culture".
"New people will be made to feel welcome and that the talents that they have to bring to the new party and what they have to offer is used and engaged with energetically," he said.
First elected to the Dáil in 1989, Mr Gilmore, a former trades' unionist official and students' leader, succeeds Pat Rabbitte who announced his decision to stand down last month.
His unanimous election is a reflection of the party's unity, said Mr Gilmore, who will serve for six years under the party's rules.
His deputy will be selected next month. The Limerick East TD, Jan O'Sullivan, and Dublin West's Joan Burton will appear before the party's membership at hustings meetings beginning next Monday.
The first of them will take place in the Westbury Hotel in Dublin next Monday at 8pm.
There will also be a meeting in Mullingar on Tuesday, September 11th. The hustings meetings, which will be attended by Mr Gilmore, will continue in Cork on Thursday, September 13th; Kilkenny on Tuesday, September 18th and Galway on Thursday, September 20th.
Emphasising Labour's role in Ireland's economic success, Mr Gilmore said his top priority will be to use such success to build a better society, end poverty, and safeguard the economy and the environment. He said Labour had contributed to making the country modern and prosperous.
Labour, he said, has 20 TDs, six senators and got 200,000 first preferences: "There are a lot of people out there who have a lot of goodwill towards the Labour Party.
"Prosperity and fairness can and do go hand in hand. We all live in society," he said.
"They say that three-term governments are not a good idea; that they tend to become complacent. This Government is not complacent, it seems to have run away," Mr Gilmore said.
