Quinn says target is for Labour to double Dail seats

The new leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said yesterday that under his leadership he believed the party could more than double its Dail seats "in the short term".

Mr Quinn told a press conference following his election that it was his ambition that the involvement or support of the party would be needed for the formation of future governments.

He said he would like "in the short term" to see a Labour Party deputy being elected by each of the 41 constituencies. "I think that's achievable."

He said Labour currently had 16 ail deputies. If the target of 41 was achieved, then no new government could be formed without the involvement of Labour.

Mr Quinn said if, during the course of this Dail, Fianna Fail made an approach to Labour to form an administration, he would be recommending to the parliamentary party that the approach be rejected.

He would not say if the party had a preference for going into power with either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail. It would be his recommendation to the party that it make no commitment before the next general election on whom it would go into coalition with.

"The Labour Party has become a party of government. The party wants to get back into government," he said. This was not for the sake of prestige, but so it could transform the country in the way it wanted. Asked why he thought he had won the leadership, Mr Quinn said for a lot of people the choice between him and Mr Brendan Howlin had been a very difficult decision. He suspected his wider experience swung it for some people.

He said the Republic was, for the first time, becoming "seriously wealthy". "We will be as rich as Sweden or Denmark or Finland are today in about 10 years if we maintain the extraordinary economic growth which has been witnessed over the last four or five years."

As a consequence, a serious choice existed about what type of society should be built. A society must be built which addressed global competition, the impact of technologies on existing and new industries and the increasing rigours of EU membership while applying existing values to the changed circumstances.

The choice existed between a "greedy, individualistic, looking out for themselves type of society," or an "inclusive, community-based society which is enterprising, vigorous, creative, but which will also reach out and help those who cannot help themselves and ensure that nobody falls through the floor of the foundations of this Republic". These choices were markers of where the right stood and the left stood.

The party's experience of working with Democratic Left had been very positive and the tensions which had existed between the two parties had been replaced by respect. "I believe that in the months and years ahead we will work much more closely together."

The results of general elections were showing that people wanted coalition governments. Asked for his preference between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael as coalition partners, Mr Quinn said he had worked with both and it had been a rewarding experience. Decisions on whom to go into government with would be made by the party in conference.

In the last general election, Labour had told voters it would not go into government with Fianna Fail because it was coming out of government with Fine Gael and Democratic Left. "I wanted the last government to be re-elected. I was bitterly disappointed that it was not re-elected." He said when Mr Dick Spring took over as party leader, divisions in the party had prevented him from being an open leader. By the time those problems had been resolved, his style of leadership had been established. "My style of leadership will be different because we are two very different people."

During the coalitions with Fianna Fail and the Rainbow, the Labour Party had seen put into law "things we had dreamed of for the previous 20 years". Understandably, the process of policy development had taken second place to this. Now the party would use the well of goodwill and expertise available to it to look at policies and at rebuilding the party organisation.

He said he had not thought about who would be on his front bench. He would consult with the existing front bench and with Mr Spring.

Asked how his leadership would differ from that of Mr Spring, he said that would emerge over time. It was Mr Spring's achievement that he was inheriting a unified party.