The four candidates for the Labour leadership may differ on tactics and style but they do not on policy, reports Mark Brennock, Political Correspondent
None of the policy issues which divide Labour's members divide the candidates.
The party has real divisions on European affairs and neutrality.
On Northern Ireland, there are sharp differences between those who take a more or less nationalist line.
Some believe the party's policy platform in the general election was too much a traditional "tax and spend" position. Others favour greater taxation to fund public services.
But none of these issues divide the four leadership contenders.
They are all in the party's policy mainstream in terms of being supportive of the EU and the Nice Treaty.
None has a strong nationalist outlook.
All supported Irish membership of Partnership for Peace when the party was divided on it. All were broadly supportive of the economic policy platform - if not the electoral strategy - in the general election.
The differences between Eamon Gilmore, Brendan Howlin, Pat Rabbitte and Róisín Shortall concern the party's positioning, rather than its policy.
In particular, the candidates have been defining their political position in terms of their attitude to Fianna Fáil.
All four contenders say they aim to get Fianna Fáil out of office. After that the differences of emphasis emerge.
Brendan Howlin is sticking to the traditional party position, followed in every election Labour has fought since 1992. That is to take an independent Labour Party course in an election campaign, leaving it to a special conference after the election to endorse any proposal to participate in government with either of the two larger parties.
He says his objective is to put Fianna Fáil out of government but he is not fully closing off the option of going into government with it.
"My horizon is beyond the next election and my strategy could end up ruling out everyone after the next election. We must do what is best for Labour. I do not define myself by what I am against: I am for Labour."
Pat Rabbitte is pointing to his strong personal stance before the May election - at variance with the official party position - that he would not serve in a Fianna Fáil-led administration.
He has declined invitations in radio interviews to rule out coalition with Fianna Fáil absolutely, but states that his aim is to vehemently oppose Fianna Fáil and put it out of government.
The other candidates share his anti-Fianna Fail tone but Mr Rabbitte has said on several occasions that his stance before the election gives him "credibility" on the issue - a credibility which, by implication, Mr Howlin and Mr Gilmore do not share.
Mr Gilmore has made it clear that the prospect of him leading Labour into government with Fianna Fáil is extremely remote, but has not yet ruled it out.
"I don't see myself making a recommendation to a party conference that we go into government with Fianna Fáil. That's not what we are at."
Mr Gilmore deals with the logical follow-on accusation that he is preparing Labour to be Fine Gael's mudguard by saying he wants to be Taoiseach, not Tánaiste. The implication is that if he is to lead Labour into coalition with Fine Gael, his ambition is that this would happen with Labour as the larger party.
"The majority in the country shares the Labour Party's values," he maintains. The challenge is to have this reflected in electoral support.
Ms Shortall is closest to the traditional anti-coalition line within the party, saying the party should not go into government unless it holds 40 or more Dáil seats.
"I don't see any future in the see-saw approach where we go into coalition as a small party and come out with fewer seats each time," she says. "Circumstances could arise where we have to consider things differently, but I believe we should be able to lead an alternative government before we consider coalition."
Alone of the candidates, Ms Shortall voted against the strategy of keeping all options open before the May election. She says there should be a different style of leadership, bringing "on the ground issues" from working-class areas, such as drugs, teenage drinking and crime, into Leinster House. This would involve a move away from what she sees as a middle-class tendency in the party.
Today all four candidates will speak to party members at the annual Tom Johnston Summer School in Fethard on Sea, Co Wexford.
A series of "hustings" for the candidates will follow, organised variously by the Labour Women's National Council and by party organisations in Cork, north Leinster, Dublin and elsewhere.
Ballot papers will be distributed to party members on October 4th, to be returned on October 25th at the latest.