Annual FF grassroots outing cancelled due to 'optics'

FIANNA FÁIL’S annual Cáirde Fáil dinner scheduled for this Saturday night, traditionally one of the highlights of the social calendar for the party grassroots, has been cancelled.

Tickets for the fundraising gathering, known as “the Taoiseach’s dinner”, cost €95, and the event was due to take place in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

One Fianna Fáil deputy, who did not want to be named, said the party had “pulled the plug” on the dinner. “The optics of it wouldn’t have been right and it would’ve been exploited by some elements of the media,” the TD said.

The deputy suggested the public reaction to the event going ahead could have been similar to that provoked by television images of the convoy of ministerial cars pulling into Farmleigh House for a Cabinet meeting last month. It would have been “toxic for Fianna Fáil presently”, the TD added.

Another TD, who also wished to remain anonymous, said: “I presume it was decreed it mightn’t have been a good week to go ahead with it. It would have sent out the wrong signal: Fianna Fáil sitting down to dinner at €95 a plate. The optics would have been poor.”

However, a spokeswoman for Fianna Fáil insisted the event had not been cancelled but had merely been deferred until a date, yet to be selected, in 2011.

“It’s not cancelled – it’s just postponed. They’ll make a decision early in the new year when to have it,” the spokeswoman said.

The Irish Timesreported earlier this month that just 14 tickets had been bought by members of the parliamentary party.

This was later disputed by Fianna Fáil deputies, including Minister of State for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary. A party source yesterday claimed over 1,000 tickets had been sold.

Cavan-Monaghan TD Margaret Conlon, the current chairwoman of the Cáirde Fáil, appealed to TDs and Senators to buy tickets at the first parliamentary party meeting of this month. Ms Conlon could not be contacted yesterday.

Previous years saw a waiting list for cancellations. Last year’s low-key event took place in the Citywest Hotel in Dublin on November 4th, and clips of Mr Cowen’s speech were subsequently posted on the Fianna Fáil website.

Ms Conlon blogged in advance of last year’s event. “The popularity of the event year after year shows the resilience and loyalty of Fianna Fáil supporters,” Ms Conlon wrote.

“Like any good family we are sticking together through the tough times.”

She said she knew 2010 would not be an easy year, “but Brian Cowen is a man unwavering in his determination to do the right thing by the country and I know that right decisions will be made to put the country back on track”.