The Candidate
The Explainer
7 Nov 2026
LIVE: Fine Gael wants renewal - but it has to pick a direction first
00:00

Fine Gael is doing a lot of soul-searching. Almost a whole weekend of it.


Its own renewal report says voters don't really know what the party actually stands for. Grassroots members at the ard fheis are debating everything from whether it has become too detached from everyday concerns to whether it should be less “woke”.


Recorded live at the party’s ard fheis in UCC, Christina Finn, Jane Matthews and Lise Hand look at Fine Gael’s identity problem, Simon Harris’s leadership, and whether years in coalition with Fianna Fáil have made the two parties blur into one.