Gilmore challenges members to change

The Labour Party must broaden its appeal and relevance in modern Ireland, its leader Eamon Gilmore said today.

The Labour Party must broaden its appeal and relevance in modern Ireland, its leader Eamon Gilmore said today.

Speaking at the first meeting of an internal commission tasked with a root-and-branch examination of the party, Mr Gilmore said "the meaning of the term Labour" must be expanded.

The party must look to 2020 and beyond while maintaining its core values of equality, solidarity, community, and democracy, he said.

"Our task is to express them in the language of modern Ireland, and to make them relevant in the lives of our people.

"We must go beyond old images of a downtrodden proletariat and smokestack industries - beyond the idea of Labour as an interest group representing a particular form of paid manual employment.

"Labour today applies to those who work for themselves, as well as those who work for employers. Labour is not confined to paid work, but applies to those who work at caring - for the elderly, for children and for those with disabilities."

Mr Gilmore succeeded Pat Rabbitte after a disappointing general election last year in which the party lost a seat.
The party conference last November voted to create the 21st Commission Labour Commission which sat for the first time today under the chairmanship of Greg Sparks programme manager to former Labour Party Tánaiste Dick Spring.

There will be a series of meetings around the country in which the 20-person commission will meet with activists with a view to making recommendations at next November's party conference.

Mr Gilmore told the inaugural meeting today that the party should not apologise for its past nor dilute its values to appeal to a wider audience.

"In fact, the modern Labour party has, in its policy positions, steadily updated itself. But where we have modernised, we have not projected that modernisation. And where Ireland has grown and changed, we have been less than successful in bringing our vision to the new Ireland," he said.

Difficult questions about the ills that exist in a prosperous society which has overcome the authoritarianism of the past.

He again sought to dispel the image of Labour as an anti-business party saying Ireland must remain an "open, entrepreneurial economy in a global marketplace".

But the traditional Labour position of defending workers rights and investing in public services and infrastructure were still required.

"We cannot face with indifference the growing trend towards low-paid employment on one hand, and outlandish rewards for a small elite on the other. Social solidarity is a source of productivity, not a drain on it. Equality is a complement to, not a substitute for, innovation and entrepreneurship."

The party had stimulated change in Ireland and now "have the courage to change itself", he said.