Labour Party falloutThe Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, has called a parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday to review a disappointing election performance which saw the party return to the Dáil with one seat less.
The party's national executive council will meet on Thursday to discuss the election outcome and decide what strategy Labour should adopt for the future.
A source said last night that the meeting was expected to be "a long and frank postmortem".
Mr Rabbitte said yesterday he would be staying on as leader of the party but accepted it needed to modernise and realise that people's attitudes had changed.
Last night some senior Labour TDs said the party needed to seriously re-examine its strategy to steer it forward into the next local and general elections.
However, Kildare South Deputy, Jack Wall, said the party voted by four to one to adopt the so-called alliance for change strategy at its conference two years ago, and it was disappointing to hear people now "whinging and crying" about that.
"We adopted a clear strategy and you are either a team player or you are not. If you are not, maybe you should be looking for a place on another team," he said, adding that Mr Rabbitte had his full support.
Mr Rabbitte said in an RTÉ Radio interview that his first position was to honour the commitment he gave to the Irish people. "I sought to improve Labour seats in order to elect a government of change that would deliver better public services. I made a commitment to the Irish people I would not lead Labour into government with Fianna Fáil at this point in history as I wanted to deliver change. I intend to honour that commitment to the Irish people."
Asked if that meant he was staying on as leader, Mr Rabbitte said: "Oh yes of course I am".
In relation to the party's disappointing election which saw it return with 20 TDs, Mr Rabbitte said at the end of the day people decided they didn't want to risk change.
He said the party's electoral strategy had been "haunted by debate" for the last 40 years.
"We took one approach this time which was to be part of making sure that the people had a choice. On the last occasion we fought as an independent party. The result is essentially the same."
He said there was a necessity to modernise the party and acknowledge that people's attitudes had changed.
Meanwhile, front bench spokesman Brendan Howlin, who had opposed the alliance with Fine Gael strategy at a party conference two years ago, told The Irish Times that there was no right answer to the perennial question about Labour's electoral strategy.
"I laid out my stall two years ago but went along with the decision of the conference. We shouldn't do anything in a knee-jerk way. We will have an open discussion," he said.