Fianna Fáil Ardfheis in Killarney to attract 3,000 delegates

Fianna Fáil is expecting up to 3,000 delegates at its

ardfheis in Co Kerry, this weekend.

The convention at the INEC in Killarney will begin tonight with a short speech by party leader Micheál Martin and conclude with his leader's address tomorrow at 8.30pm.

The theme for this ardfheis is Recovery for All and the party will use the two-day convention to showcase its five European Parliament election candidates, as well as 405 local election candidates, ahead of the May 23rd elections.

The party’s aim is to win a minimum of three, and possibly four, of the European Parliament seats and to win more than the 218 seats it won in the 2009 local elections, when it had a 25.4 per cent share of the vote.

Because of the scale of its defeat in the 2011 election, Fianna Fáil has been less critical – in the main – of Government policy than Sinn Féin and other opposition groups.

However, the party has adopted a more "traditional" Opposition role in recent months, and has been vocal in its opposition to the property tax and the abolition of the Seanad – two policies of which it was in favour at the time of the general election.

Criticism of Coalition

It is expected to ramp up its criticism of Coalition policy at its conference, focusing its attacks on financial difficulties affecting households and mortgage

s; policing, and the Government’s plans to introduce universal healthcare.

Ahead of the conference, party strategists have said its focus for its recovery will very much be centred on Dublin, where it lost all but one of its seats in the 2011 election. It has had no TD in the capital since the death of Brian Lenihan in 2011.

In addition to increasing the number of councillors it has in the capital, where it holds only five of 52 seats on the city council, the party is directing a lot of its resources to Mary Fitzpatrick, its candidate in the European elections.

Its strategists have said the party will be reliant on a strong showing in the capital as a springboard for a comeback in the 2016 general election, in much the same way Fine Gael approached the 2004 European and local elections in Dublin after its dismal performance in the general election in 2002.

Close battle

There has been some private polling conducted by political parties which shows Brian Hayes of Fine Gael topping the poll and comfortably winning a seat.

However, the remaining two seats in the Dublin constituency will involve a close and complicated battle involving four or five candidates, including Ms Fitzpatrick, Labour's MEP Emer Costello, Eamon Ryan of the Green Party, Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy, Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan, and Independent Nessa Childers. The polls show none of the candidates coming near the 25 per cent plus one vote quota and all will be reliant on transfers.

In the other two constituencies, several private party polls are suggesting at least one seat in each for Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin.

The party is expected to use the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the smoking ban as a means of promoting Mr Martin’s leadership attribute.