Fianna Fáil has invited high-profile speakers on social cohesion, childcare and the economy to address its annual two-day parliamentary party meeting in Co Cavan next month.
The party's 110 TDs, senators and MEPs are expected to attend the event on September 5th and 6th, which traditionally flags the issues the party sees as important for the coming Dáil session. Last year's invitation to Fr Seán Healy of Cori, for example, marked Fianna Fáil's attempt to recast its image as that of a socially caring party.
Author and Harvard professor Robert Puttnam, who has written extensively on the fall in social participation by citizens in the United States, is among those invited. The Taoiseach has regularly referred approvingly to his book, Bowling Alone, which details the importance of citizen participation in communities and society.
A Fianna Fáil spokesman said yesterday that not all speakers had been confirmed. However the invitation to Prof Puttnam reflects the Taoiseach's concern at what he said last April were the growing pressures placed on Ireland's traditional high level of social participation and neighbourliness by the demands of the economy.
He made those remarks as he set up a taskforce on how to encourage "active citizenship" among increasingly pressurised citizens. With this due to report by October, Mr Ahern is expected to take initiatives to encourage community involvement in advance of the next general election.
The two-day meeting in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, will also devote considerable time to the issue of childcare, reflecting the recognition by all parties of the growing importance of this issue among voters.
Invited speakers include chairwoman of the National Economic and Social Forum Maureen Gaffney; Noirin Hayes of the Dublin Institute of Technology and the Children's Rights Alliance; and tax specialist Pam Kearney.
Economist Oliver Mangan of AIB and Ireland's rugby coach Eddie O'Sullivan are also expected to speak.