Simon Coveney: Fine Gael image needs to change

Good morning, at the outset of what is shaping up to be a quiet political week.

All the better for Ministers and TDs to take the time to develop longer-term ideas and policies as the pace in Leinster Houses slows even further.

The weekend saw Simon Coveney, one of the frontrunners for the Fine Gael leadership, engage in such musing when he give an interview to the TV3 'Agenda' show, hosted by David McWilliams.

During the discussion, ostensibly to discuss Coveney’s national planning framework that was launched last week, the Cork South Central TD strayed into laying out his vision for what he believes his party should be.

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He said Fine Gael’s image needs to change, and that “out of necessity” the party has had to focus on job creation and the economy over the past five years.

“But for me the image that many people have, particularly a younger generation, people under the age of 30, the image that they have of my party is a party that made hard economic decisions for the country that by and large have worked but have been pretty unpleasant in terms of people’s quality of life, and have put families and communities under pressure,” he said.

Fine Gael is seen as a party that people “don’t associate with caring and protecting vulnerable people and so on, which I think is actually a bit unfair because we are trying to do that,” Coveney said.

It is now a shibboleth among Irish politicians that last year's general election saw voters tell the political system that it wanted the focus on services and public investment above all else. The largely economic pitch of Fine Gael has given way to the Fianna Fáil agenda of "fairness" and social democratic centrism.

Like Leo Varadkar and Frances Fitzgerald, his two leading opponents for leadership, Coveney seems to believe success for Fine Gael lies in a further move to the soft centre of politics.

Given that one of the above is almost certain to succeed Enda Kenny - particularly Varadkar or Coveney - the next general election will not be a grand clash of ideas, nor even of messaging.

Since the implosion of Lucinda Creighton’s Renua, Fine Gael’s leading lights have concluded there is no competition for it on the centre right.

The fight of all modern western politics, we are told, is not left versus right anyway - but populism versus centrism/liberalism. Yet a centrist party offering no compelling, unique message of its own risks taking its core vote for granted and damaging its own long-term interests.

Coveney's full interview can be seen here.