Mr Michael Noonan had a comfortable win in the contest for the Fine Gael leadership yesterday when he took 61 per cent of the parliamentary vote. The last-minute withdrawal of Mr Jim Mitchell tipped the scales inexorably against Mr Enda Kenny. Earlier, Mr Bernard Allen had conceded. In making their choice, members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party opted for experience, ability and solid ministerial performance. They were also influenced by Mr Noonan's political programme, based on Just Society principles, aimed at shaping Irish society along European, rather than US, lines. But Mr Noonan's success represents just the first step on a difficult and potentially dangerous journey for himself and his party. With a general election less than 18 months away, he has to address two separate but complementary issues as a matter of urgency. In appointing a front bench, next Thursday, he will have to encourage new members to exhibit vigour and political hunger while, at the same time, retaining the best of the party's established talent. He will face the difficult task of trying to heal fresh wounds. For, after two weeks of intense campaigning - first to depose Mr John Bruton and then to elect a successor - Fine Gael is a deeply divided party. He will also be required to rejuvenate the organisation while making the party more relevant to the electorate at large.
Mr Noonan made a good start yesterday. In his first press conference as party leader, he conducted himself with a complex mix of confidence, humility, erudition and humour. He promised fair play for all and the adoption of a social model that would provide a unified health service, equal opportunity in education, a major public housing programme, affordable child care and respect for the role of women in the home. And he spoke of rebranding Fine Gael as a nationalist party. A successful political organisation is based on consensus. But there is more than one route to that goal. There is firm leadership, which unites behind coherent and persuasive policies and there is caution, that eases up in the face of difficulties and disagreement. Fine Gael lost its way in recent years. The situation identified by its Commission on Renewal in 1994, that the party was "weak, demotivated, lacking morale, direction and focus", holds true today. Without a clear vision of where it stood, Fine Gael concentrated its energies on becoming an anti-Fianna Fail party, offering integrity in public life and leaning towards an alliance with the Labour Party. Yesterday, the new party leader offered his party a revised batch of policies and energetic leadership. On the basis of his initial pronouncements, Mr Noonan appears determined to return to the broad social democracy agenda espoused by Dr Garret FitzGerald in the 1980s. Such a development is likely to meet with some resistance within Fine Gael. It may generate some creative tension with the Labour Party. But, in the longer term, it is likely to encourage a public perception of greater homogeneity on the opposition benches in the Dail and provide the bones of an alternative government.