FG posters point to election planning
FINE Gael has designed three distinctly different candidate posters in case a general election is held on the same day as the local and European votes.
The party took the decision to design three different styles of posters to ensure voters can tell the difference between general, local and European candidates if all the elections take place on the same day in May.
The decision was taken by party chiefs who have ramped up election preparations in recent weeks as relations between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have deteriorated.
It is understood that Fine Gael has also sought the services of long-time party activist and election strategist Mark Mortel. He has provided election briefings to key staff members in recent weeks and discussed campaign slogans.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has ruled out a general election in 2019, irrespective of any extension to the Brexit timeline.
Mr Martin said it was a “no brainer” for the confidence and supply deal to be extended in light of Brexit. He said any Brexit extension would probably be only until June or July, adding that he had committed to giving the Government space for 2019.
“The Irish political system — notwithstanding jibes and things like that — has stood the test in terms of understanding critical, almost existential threats to the nation and rising above party politics,” he said.
Mr Martin rejected a suggestion from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that Fianna Fail may not have extended the deal if it was further ahead in the polls as a “jibe”.
“The Taoiseach should focus on his job. He doesn’t need to be obsessed by Fianna Fail,” he said.
Mr Martin also hit out at Mr Varadkar’s language about the rights of Irish people in Northern Ireland last year, when he said they would never be overlooked again.
The Fianna Fail leader said that at the time he did not believe the language was “apt” and that it elevated the discussion to a constitutional one for people in Northern Ireland.
“Some of that upped the ante in terms of the subsequent reactions to the declaration last December and the agreement. It elevated the whole debate to constitutional issues,” he said.
The Ard Fheis will focus on the upcoming local and European elections and Mr Martin said the party planned to win a seat in Europe in each constituency.
FIANNA Fail has warned that the gloves are set to come off once Brexit happens, with the party set to increase pressure on the Government.
In his speech to the party’s Ard Fheis last night, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin underlined the need for the party to pull on the green jersey to ensure that the country retains a strong hand ahead of Britain’s exit from the European Union.
But he also used his address to delegates to ramp up criticism of Leo Varadkar’s government with a scathing assessment of the Fine Gaelled administration’s performance on housing and health — branding the Government one “which just doesn’t get it”.
Once Brexit is dealt with, the party should move to undermine the Government party, Mr Martin told delegates.
“We have to get through Brexit first. We have to be able to quickly respond to whatever happens in the coming weeks and months,” he said.
“We have to help businesses and communities to limit its damage.
“And then we must focus on showing the Irish people that there is an alternative.
“They don’t have to accept the chronic failure to deliver plans, the rising waiting lists, the scandalous levels of homelessness [and] a government which just doesn’t get it.”
He also made a rallying call to grassroots members of the party to hold their nerve in keeping the confidence and supply deal in place for this year to allow the country to meet the challenges posed by Brexit, which was a “blow at the very foundations of much of the progress” that Europe and Ireland have made in the past 50 years.
Mr Martin rejected the suggestion that a majority in the party did not agree with his strategy and said delegates he had spoken to had a very “nuanced” view of the need to keep the deal in place.
Speaking ahead of his keynote address, he said it was a “no brainer” for the party to keep Fine Gael in power so as to avoid an election and the formation of a government at a crucial time when the Oireachtas needed to pass emergency legislation to prepare Ireland for a potential crash-out Brexit on March 29.
In his speech, Mr Martin said: “Everyone agrees that the Brexit threat is historic and urgent and you just cannot tackle a historic and urgent threat with politics as usual.”
He also hit out at Sinn Fein for attempting to bring about a collapse of the Government.
“The price of playing politics with Brexit would be felt by the Irish people in fewer jobs, lower salaries, less money for schools, hospitals and pensions,” he said.
“We want this government gone, but we refuse to expose our country to the massive risk of having no functioning government or Dail at this moment of great threat.”
In a bid to appeal to his base, Mr Martin littered his speech with attacks on Mr Varadkar’s government — just hours after hitting out at the Taoiseach for making political jibes.
He told delegates at the Citywest Hotel that ministers were passionate only about using public funds for self-promotion.
In the most sweeping pointer to the party’s likely election platform to date, Mr Martin spoke about reforms in health and housing and targeted reforms for rural Ireland in the form of a ‘community services guarantee’, which he pledged would protect local services and high streets.
At Fine Gael’s Ard Fheis, Mr Varadkar unveiled a pledge to cut taxes over five years if re-elected in the next general election.