Procedures review to follow elections

CANDIDATE SELECTION:FIANNA FÁIL candidate selection procedures will be reviewed following the local elections after angry ardfheis delegates called for a reversal of the move to selection by interview rather than the traditional convention process.

In the only seriously contentious debate at the ardfheis, one delegate said he had resigned from two posts in Tipperary South because of the new system; another delegate said the party had become “fascist”, and a third said words had been added to a motion they submitted which made it “unacceptable”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the current system was not perfect “but it is inclusive” and they would work “after this local election and find a more accommodating and comfortable solution for the future”.

During the two-hour debate, Paddy Cullen from Tipperary South, who received a sustained round of applause, said he had had no option but to resign from two officer positions after his comhairle ceantair was “denied the opportunity to conduct a selection convention”.

He said there were 50 delegates present “each of whom had devoted an average of 30 years’ service to the local organisation. When I compare their combined 1,500 years of service to the 45 minutes of the interview panel, I could not in all conscience reconcile one with the other.”

There might be situations when it was advisable to dispense with a convention in certain areas, but the ard chomhairle already has the power to do this under the existing system, he said.

John Butler from Athlone asked if delegates were going to allow the party to become “fascist”, which he believed had happened.

Con Lynch of Cork North West said unacceptable words had been added to their motion, forcing change by December in the number of regional sections.

This was a “source of anger and puzzlement to the cumann and comhairle members who have delivered two Fianna Fáil seats in a marginal constituency time and time again. It is something that made us ask, why fix something that is already working so well?”

Mr Cowen, replying to the debate, said the consultation process in the run-up to changes was “real and substantial”. He said he did not claim the new method of selection was perfect, “but I defend the reason why it was used and why the national executive was prepared to give it a chance”.