THE LABOUR Party is yielding too much ground to its Coalition partners, the party’s MEP for Ireland East Nessa Childers has said.
In advance of Labour’s annual conference in Galway next weekend, Ms Childers said rank-and-file members were worried the party was losing its identity in Government.
“Labour deputies were returned in record-breaking numbers last year, but they were voted in for a purpose, to ensure there wasn’t a single Fine Gael government,” she said in a statement yesterday.
“People wanted to ensure that Government policy would include strong social policy, not just policy to suit business interests.”
If the party continued on its present course, then it was “more likely to dilute the Labour message and almost get absorbed by the larger party”.
“Anyone who has been in coalition with a bigger party will tell you this, it is similar to when Labour were in government with Fianna Fáil, only this time it is worse because of the bailout,” she said.
The survival of the Labour Party and its role in Government was “intrinsically linked” to the survival of the country and the economy because it had to be remembered that Fine Gael was a party of small government and big business.
“Fine Gael is willing to impose even more austerity – they are a party of big business. I am not anti-business but I don’t like the strong influence large corporations have on policy.”
She added: “You cannot have a recovery policy based on austerity alone; we have all seen what it is doing to people. We need more than that, we need jobs and growth but not at any price.
“If we continue with nothing but more austerity we are in real danger of not only destroying the economy but everyone in it, you would dismantle the economy.
“We cannot support policies which are offensive to the very notion of what it means to be a member of the Labour Party.
“We have to carry those values, even though I understand that being in a Coalition Government involves compromise and that uncomfortable decisions have to be made.”
Ms Childers said she expected her views would find support among Labour Party members who, she believed, were becoming more and more worried about their party’s identity and what exactly the party was achieving in Government.
