Fine Gael won't say if it wants to be left or right, but Harris' speech offered a clear clue

FINE GAEL DOESN’T want to call itself left or right, but its party leader’s speech at the Fine Gael ard fheis this evening gave a good indication of where it might be headed. 

Closing out the first day of the party conference in University College Cork (UCC), Simon Harris reignited old talking points which are reminiscent of the former party leader Leo Varadkar’s pledge to clamp down on social welfare cheats. 

“The dole is a safety net, not a way of life,” Harris told the 1,200-strong packed-out conference centre, who reacted with applause.

“Everyone who can work should be expected to make a contribution,” said the Fine Gael leader, who said at a time of full employment, it is simply “not acceptable for any person to remain on the Live Register year after year after year”.

Harris said he wants to see new Pathways to Work plan – which is actually already in the works by Fianna Fáil’s Social Protection Minister Dara Calleary. Tougher unemployment penalties were also on the way, he says. 

The Fine Gael leader has chosen to shine a spotlight on the long-term unemployed, at a time when CSO figures show that the unemployment rate is one of its lowest in years, at 4.8%.

When Varadkar was criticised for his social welfare cheats remark in 2017, the rate stood at 6.4%.

A report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) this year found that while 64% of the population believe that ‘social benefits help prevent poverty’, this view was temporarily weakened after the launch of that campaign which encouraged the public to identify “potential cheats” committing welfare fraud.

Unemployment is not an issue that has been raised as a major concern in recent years. With the country in full employment, why would it be. 

But it begs the question, why is Fine Gael revisiting the issue of the long-term unemployed now? 

The party is in renewal-mode, with a recent party report calling out a bit of an identity crisis within Fine Gael. 

As a result, the party has been talking about how it can reclaim its identity, asking what are its values and looking at which direction it should take after being in power for 15 years.

In the last week, the party has published its “commission on renewal” report, which talks about a ‘cultural change’ being needed in the party. 

The Fine Gael leader told reporters in Cork City on Friday that there is a “need to sharpen our identity and proposition”.  

There is a need to “sharpen” Fine Gael’s identity, he said, adding: “You have to be willing to listen to your members and listen to your voters.”

Asked about why a motion on centre-right identity would not be considered at the Ard Fheis despite reports he had requested it, the Tánaiste said he did not put forward any proposals but “made sure the executive council had considered how issues around the party’s identity” would be included.

He said: “A subcommittee of the Executive Council gave it consideration, and they said we believe the session of the commission of renewal is the way that we address all of these issues.

‘No shame in being centre-right’

Sarah Hynes, a Fine Gael member in Dún Laoghaire, who helped draft the motion, spoke out at one of the breakaway sessions on the party’s new renewal document on Saturday.

Standing on her feet, she told the auditorium, full of party members, that Fine Gael shouldn’t be afraid to call themselves “centre-right”. 

“I fully agree with the six values that you’ve come up with, but I’ll actually call them a label, which is centre-right Christian Democrat values,” she said, adding that while some in the party might not want to say what side of the political spectrum the party belongs, she believes there is a need to name it.

“And you may not want to call yourself a label, but if you don’t, someone else will,” she told the crowd.

She said Fine Gael needs to say what its values are and what they are not, stating that in her view, it is “Christian Democrat centre-right, and that’s a good space to be in”.

“There’s no shame in it,” she added. 

Her comments came after former Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, and one of the author’s of the renewal document commented on how there have been lots of questions of late about where Fine Gael sits on the political spectrum. 

“Are we far-right or right? Centre-right or are we centre? Are we centre-left? Are we left?… 

“I’ve always felt that reducing politics to a single scale is something of an oversimplification… it really doesn’t tell the full story.

“I think it’s better to look at individual issues and individual positions,” said Flanagan.

Members at the discussion made similar remarks, with one asking what the party’s new catchphrase would be and who they are trying to target.

They mentioned that Varadkar’s saying used to be that the party wanted to support those “that get up early in the morning”, a phrase Harris was also guilty of recycling this year. 

Identity being blurred with Fianna Fáil

Another member stood up to say that the longer Fine Gael is in coalition with Fianna Fáil, the “blurrier” it gets between the two parties, with this man stating he doesn’t want Fine Gael to be “consumed” by Fianna Fáil. 

The Journal spoke to a number of grassroots members at the ard fheis in Cork, who voiced concern about the direction of the party, with one woman stating that the party is “dishing out” money too easily, with another saying that perhaps Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil would benefit from some time on the sidelines. 

John Carroll, the general secretary of the party, told party members on Saturday that if the party wants to achieve the cultural change it needs, then the party has to be open to new ideas and policies, he said. 

When will this cultural change be achieved and when will the identity crisis in Fine Gael be solved? Carroll said there is a “big body of work” to be done in 2027, stating that come 2028 the party will be brimming to get into election mode and the focus could be lost. 

Over the next 12 months the direction of where the party should be more clear.

But the question is whether it will have the appetite to make a decision about where it wants to sit on the political spectrum.

It cannot continue to be a party that is reluctant to be honest about what and who it stands for, nor can it afford to let its position become increasingly blurred with Fianna Fáil.

Fine Gael’s renewal process over 2027 may well give it the opportunity to rediscover its political identity. But the work required will need to be more than just a new set of values or a refreshed party logo or slogan.

It will require the party to decide what it believes in, who it represents and what it stands for, but in truth, we’ve already started to see hints of where this party is headed.