PDs close ranks after councillor quits in merger call dispute

The Progressive Democrats closed ranks yesterday on the issue of the party's future in the wake of Thursday night's resignation of Limerick councillor and former city mayor Mr Dick Sadlier.

The party leader, Ms Mary Harney, restated her opposition to a merger with Fianna Fail, while insisting the party could debate the issue as Mr Sadlier had wished. Meanwhile, several other party sources criticised the councillor for the manner of his resignation.

Admitting the PDs had been "gobsmacked" by it, a party spokesman said the councillor had never raised the subject of a merger at party meetings before going public on the issue in the Limerick Leader last week. He had also been one of the strongest opponents of a voting pact with Fianna Fail in the Limerick East by-election in March, according to the spokesman.

"He had ample opportunity to discuss his ideas about a merger. I can think of nine or 10 different occasions in the past eight months where he might have brought it up, and didn't. Indeed, there was a pre-arranged meeting between Mary Harney and local councillors in Limerick last Monday, and the expectation was that he'd be there and would raise the points he'd made to the Limerick Leader. But he didn't even turn up."

Meanwhile, the party's defeated candidate in the by-election, Mr Tim O'Malley, also expressed surprise at Mr Sadlier's comments and subsequent resignation: "He was one of the leading figures opposed to a voting pact with Fianna Fail in the by-election. The party was united on this anyway, but he was absolutely adamant about it."

He added that the PDs had carried out an exhaustive debate on the party's future in its recent commission for renewal, during which "nobody, to my recollection, suggested we discuss a merger".

Other PD sources in Limerick were pointing to the performance in the by-election as a motive for Mr Sadlier's resignation. While Mr O'Malley polled 16 per cent of the vote in county areas, he averaged only 6 per cent in the city, and one of the lowest PD votes was in the Ballinacurra/Weston ward, where Mr Sadlier was only narrowly elected in the last local elections.

As the party insisted that the resignation was an isolated event, another Limerick party councillor and former mayor, Mr Kieran O'Hanlon, moved to clarify comments he had made in support of his former colleague. He said that while he supported Mr Sadlier's right to call for a debate on a possible merger, he himself was not calling for one. But if such a debate were to be held, he added, it should consider Fine Gael as well as Fianna Fail as a possible partner in a merger. He admitted the PDs were in a vulnerable position. "We have three very good ministers, but we don't seem to get the credit in the opinion polls," he said, adding that the party's future would depend "on Mary Harney's performance as much as anything else".

In the face of repeated predictions that the PDs will struggle to hold a seat in Limerick East if Mr Des O'Malley sticks to his intention not to stand again, Mr Tim O'Malley said yesterday that even on the basis of the by-election results, he would be very close to holding the seat. He also insisted the party retained an identity of its own: "Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have adopted a lot of our policies, but we are still a separate party, in favour of enterprise and low taxation and of getting government off people's backs. We have a future."