The Taoiseach yesterday denounced two Fianna Fáil TDs who recently publicly criticised the Government's performance, saying they were letting down their colleagues in advance of next year's local and European elections.
In front of over 100 party TDs, senators and MEPs meeting in Sligo, Mr Ahern named Mr Ned O'Keeffe and Mr John McGuinness who he said had felt the need to break ranks and speak critically about their colleagues to the media on a number of occasions.
According to party sources, the Taoiseach was applauded for his uncharacteristic decision to directly name and respond to sniping from the backbenchers. He said there was no point in people publicly calling for "cohesion" in the Cabinet, and then the same people publicly giving the impression that Fianna Fáil was not cohesive.
The sources said that Mr Ahern first said that two deputies in particular had recently broken ranks. This was greeted by laughter.
However, his audience was surprised when he then named the two, and accused them, according to one source, of "putting pressure on their colleagues who were trying to work hard and display cohesion".
Mr O'Keeffe's recent criticisms were aimed specifically at the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, who was not at yesterday's meeting as he is attending the world trade talks in Mexico. Mr McGuinness has made several public criticisms of the Cabinet for what he believes has been a lacklustre performance.
In his speech to the parliamentary party, Mr Ahern also told them that, while the world economy was in a downturn, Ireland was still doing well. Earlier, he told reporters that he acknowledged that backbenchers were concerned about a variety of issues, saying: "The day public representatives are not worried about issues will be the day they are not doing their job."
He told the parliamentary party's annual seminar that they should not talk down the state of the Irish economy. There were almost 1.8 million people working in Ireland, and just 84,000 unemployed. Our unemployment rate was 4.4 per cent - half the European average - while Germany was at 11 per cent. "We are doing extraordinarily well."
He told reporters that the two-day meeting gave parliamentary party members the opportunity to discuss economics, competitiveness, insurance costs, the health services and other issues.
He said low-value manufacturing jobs had "just fallen out of the system", and that this had happened more substantially in the UK. Ireland now had to promote itself aggressively as an attractive location for high-quality investment projects, to build up investment in research and development and support for innovation for indigenous companies. It also had to concentrate on "critical infrastructure needs in transport, broadband, water and sewage". The economist Mr Dan McLaughlin, environmental consultant Mr Robert Rowan, and Ms Dorothea Dowling, who chairs the Motor Insurance Advisory Board and the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, addressed the seminar yesterday before TDs, senators and MEPs split up into workshops dealing with a range of policy issues.
This morning they will hear from the chairwoman of the National Economic and Social Forum, Ms Maureen Gaffney, before again attending policy workshops. The two-day seminar will conclude at lunchtime with a speech from the Taoiseach.