AS THE party leaders gave their final press conferences yesterday, it emerged that the former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox has been helping Fine Gael prepare for its first 100 days in office.
“I was invited to assist in the preparation of Fine Gael’s first-100-day strategy and was pleased to do so,” Mr Cox said last night.
“This strategy exhibits an appetite, determination and capacity for change which awaits a mandate from the electorate to realise its potential. It has been prepared at the express request of Enda Kenny to ensure that, in the event of receiving the necessary endorsement from the electorate, he and his team will hit the ground running.”
There was speculation in Fine Gael last night that if Mr Kenny became taoiseach he would invite Mr Cox, a former Progressive Democrats TD and Independent MEP, to advise him on the attempt to renegotiate the EU-IMF bailout.
Earlier, at his final campaign press conference, Mr Kenny announced that if Fine Gael was elected to government new ministers would be told to concentrate exclusively on their portfolios and avoid constituency work for the first 100 days.
Mr Kenny pledged to end the “circus” of cabinet members attending local events. “If this becomes a reality ministers will concentrate completely, to the exclusion of other works, on the national responsibilities of their portfolios. Their constituencies I’m quite sure will be happy to accommodate them,” he said.
Promising to “hit the ground running” with a strategy to restore Ireland’s international reputation, Mr Kenny also said Irish ambassadors would be recalled from abroad temporarily for an extensive briefing.
“I actually see the emergence from this general election of a really brilliant opportunity to change so many things that have been broken, to redirect structures that have not delivered and to make a real impact in restoring some sense of pride to politics.”
Mr Kenny also said he would not offer any advice to Fine Gael voters about who they should give their preferences to after voting for the party .
Party director of elections Phil Hogan made a direct appeal to traditional Fianna Fáil voters. “I would say to the decent Fianna Fáil people who are appalled by the state of our country, and are equally appalled as we are about the way that their own party has led this country over the last number of years to the economic crisis that we have today, that they loan us their vote on this occasion to give strong and stable government to Fine Gael.”
In his final press conference, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said his party had fought a credible and straight-up campaign and would be fighting for every vote until polling day. He renewed his criticism of Fine Gael’s five-point plan and said the final televised debate between party leaders had exposed serious flaws in it.
“The five-point plan is full of black holes, ill-thought-out ideas and poll-tested policies that are designed to win votes and not solve the serious problems we face today,” he said.
In a concession that his party would be going into opposition, Mr Martin said his campaign was about more than what happened in the polling stations. “I am committed to renewing Fianna Fáil at every level, from the grassroots to the parliamentary party,” he said.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore made an appeal for people to vote for his party if they wanted to avoid a single-party Fine Gael government.
Mr Gilmore said the election was about how people saw the future of the country and how Ireland was going to get out of the mess it was in. The choice involved for voters was one between a single-party Fine Gael government or a coalition between Labour and Fine Gael. The only way for people who didn’t want single-party government to avoid this outcome was to vote Labour, he said.
He said voters who intended voting for Independents or other parties should understand they might end up with a single-party Fine Gael government as a consequence. The election could produce a result that they didn’t want and for this reason they should consider switching their vote to Labour. “If you don’t want single-party government you should vote Labour,” he said.
The Irish Timeshas the best colour writing, with Miriam Lord following the last day of canvassing and Stephen Collins analysing the general election campaign.
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