The first of four special policy meetings of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, which took place in Leinster House yesterday in response to rumblings among backbenchers, was described by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Micheál Martin, as "very constructive and very forward looking".
His assessment was broadly accepted by the backbenchers who signed a letter last month urging the leadership to listen more closely to their concerns. One of them expressed satisfaction with the way the four Ministers who spoke at yesterday's meeting responded to the TDs, but added that they would have to wait and see whether their concerns were actually taken on board.
The meeting, which began at 2.30pm, went on for more than 4½ hours, and was attended by 70 members of the parliamentary party. Three Ministers - Micheál Martin, Noel Dempsey and Mary Coughlan - spoke at the meeting and there were 52 contributions from backbenchers, with some TDs speaking twice.
The Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, who was expected to speak at the meeting, did not contribute, although he attended and listened to the speakers, as did the Taoiseach. The agenda for the meeting focused on economic issues, including enterprise, transport, energy and communications.
At a press briefing afterwards, Mr Martin said the Cabinet members had been impressed by the quality of the contributions and the positive attitude adopted by those who spoke. He added that it was an important step along the way to the production of the Fianna Fáil election manifesto next year.
"We were in a listening mode but there is no doubt that the contributions made will feed into the process of devising the manifesto," he said.
The Minister said that during the discussion on the economy, there was a strong emphasis from most speakers on the strength of the economy and the fact that it had come about because of low taxation, particularly low taxation on the incomes of workers, and not just low corporate taxes.
"There is no argument about the fact that we had done very well as an economy, but speakers did say that more should be done for indigenous enterprise and the small business sector, where some of them have a lot of experience," said Mr Martin.
He said that TDs had raised concerns about transport issues, with some deputies mentioning the need for a greater emphasis on the regions, but with Dublin TDs wanting more spending in the capital from the €35 billion Transport 21 plan.
On road safety, the Minister said that TDs had suggested that celebrities known to younger people should be used in the campaign for safer driving.
The Government chief whip, Tom Kitt, said that the format of the meeting had been very successful. A report on the meeting would be prepared by Dublin Mid West TD John Curran and presented to the yearly review of the parliamentary party in Westport in September.
Mr Kitt said that Mr Curran would have the support of research assistants in devising his report for the September meeting.
He added that the exhaustive debate at the meeting had allowed all points of view to be expressed. Some of the backbenchers complained later that the meeting had gone on for far too long, but they conceded that this was not the fault of Ministers but of TDs who spoke for too long.
There will be two further meetings next week, one on social policy on July 18th and another on quality of life issues the following day.