"WE had a breach of trust with our voters in 1992 which has not yet been fully repaired. We went in with Fianna Fail when most expected us not to, there was the tax amnesty and the passports affair. We're still suffering from that." This view expressed yesterday by a senior Labour Party strategist was shared by its activists and candidates - failed and successful as the party lost half of its seats.
They detected a deep resentment among sections of the electorate at Labour's performance in Government, and a sense of revenge wreaked on them for some perceived betrayal.
In November 1992 Labour rode the crest of an anti Fianna Fail, pro idealism in politics wave and won 19 per cent of the vote and 33 seats. Mr Spring had led a crusade against alleged low standards in high places, and reaped the reward.
Within months the clean image was tarnished and replaced by an image of a party drunk on power, travelling about in Mercedes cars and, Government jets. Several family members of labour ministers were appointed to various posts, and the media reported extensively on this. A new layer of politically appointed programme managers was introduced to government.
The "Mercs and perks" issue caught on so much that the media were reporting on the usage of mobile telephones by Labour Ministers and advisers, as it Labour figures in government using such technology at the State's expense was improper.
Labour deputies, say this media battering was unfair. Fianna Fail advisers had mobile telephones too, you know, said one reelected deputy. "Their ministers had State cars, Albert travelled on the government jet, yet this wasn't an issue." Going in with Fianna Fail in 1992 was the root of their problems, according to the Labour leadership. "I believe it was the right decision at the time but I believe it was impossible to explain and impossible to live down," according to senior Labour adviser Fergus Finlay.
Bringing down Albert Reynolds and crossing over to form a government with Fine Gael and Democratic Left did not repair the damage. "Once it started, everything we did was said to be arrogant, including walking out on Fianna Fail," according to one deputy.
Another party figure points to Labour's history of emerging from government to a poor, election result it happened in 1977, 1987 and now 1997. Some people in the party think the voters only love us in opposition ...
but they are not keen on us to actually go into government ourselves." Once the voters see Labour representatives with the usual trappings such as cars and trips to European meetings on the Government jet, they regard them as traitors, the argument goes.
A regular criticism of the Government was that Labour had too much influence on it. This only makes sense if a significant number of voters do not see it as Labour's role to have a major influence on a government.
The voters did not take their revenge on the Government. The Fine Gael vote increased by three percentage points. Democratic Left's vote remained static. Of the three Government parties, oily Labour suffered a drop of nine percentage points. If the voters were taking revenge, it was only directed against the Labour Party.
Another veteran Dublin activist said the party's identity was submerged in Government. Bruton began talking like a social democrat about inclusiveness, equality, sharing the benefits of economic growth and all our messages. We had nothing distinctive to say." One activist also believes that some of those deputies who have just lost their seats and head office should have developed their local support structure and party membership more than they did.
"In 1992 a lot of them just had a small number of friends and local supporters but got elected on the tide of goodwill for the party. But they went into this election with the same level of local party infrastructure, but a very different national mood, and they suffered." The deputies who bucked the national trend Brendan Howlin who was elected, on, the first count in Wexford, Willie Penrose who topped the poll in Westmeath, Emmet Stagg who was elected comfortably in Kildare North and Dick Spring himself in Kerry North, prove how organisation can triumph over a national trend, he says.
But other hard constituency workers - Sean Ryan in Dublin North, Joe Costello in Dublin Central and Liam Kavanagh in Wicklow, for example lost their seats, showing that constituency work and organisation is sometimes not enough.
Now they are destined for opposition. Some of the TDs would simply leave the art rather than go back with Fianna Fail, says the same activist. They face a period, of demanding high standards in government, of reflecting public concern about how they are governed and of building local party organisations.
If the cyclical theory expounded by party activists is correct, it will do them a power of good come the next election.