Fianna Fáil's general secretary Seán Dorgan has acknowledged that the party is facing major challenges in relation to a declining and ageing membership base, but said it was a problem that was common to all major parties across Europe.
Speaking in the wake of a report which showed that the party's actual membership was less than half of what was originally estimated, Mr Dorgan said that Fianna Fáil was embarking on a major recruitment drive over the coming weeks, in a bid to attract 10,000 new members.
He rejected suggestions that the party was facing inevitable and serious decline and said that it had already had recruitment successes with an additional 500 members recruited for the party's youth organisation, Ógra Fianna Fáil, in the last six months.
The confidential paper by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, which was reported in yesterday's Irish Times, found that the party's organisation was largely rural, ageing and declining.
It said that a quarter of local Fianna Fáil branches were inactive, 58 per cent had attracted no new members in the last three years, and half admitted to holding meetings once a year or less.
It found that the party had "probably 15,000 to 20,000 actual members", compared with a nominal figure of 50,000 on its database.
The party is also examining proposals aimed at increasing the number of younger and female candidates in the next general election. "It's obviously a stark reminder of the situation as it is," said Mr Dorgan. "It's really of no surprise to us." He said that other parties in Britain and Europe had similar problems and challenges.
"All are agreed that larger political parties today find it difficult to attract members, find it difficult to organise and it's a challenge in the modern environment. It's no different for Fianna Fáil." He said the Taoiseach had designated 2005 "the year of the organisation". "He wanted the organisation and members to focus on how we develop our party further, and to look at putting in place structures that would induce people into the party."
Meanwhile, other established Irish parties claimed that they had been experiencing membership growth as opposed to decline. A spokesman for the Labour Party said it had increased membership to over 7,000 from 4,000 during the leadership election in 2002.
Fine Gael, the party which has been most identified as a declining political organisation, has claimed that the party has been attracting significant numbers of new members since the last general election, when it had one of its worst electoral performances in 60 years, losing 23 seats.
