PEOPLE WERE reacting against "buccaneer capitalism" by turning to Labour for proper regulation of markets and a central economic role for the State, party leader Eamon Gilmore has said.
Addressing Labour TDs and Senators in Roscommon yesterday at the start of a two-day party think-in, he said they were facing into "a lively and difficult Dáil term".
"We are also preparing for perhaps the most important general election in the recent history of the State," Mr Gilmore added.
The next election would decide the future direction of the country "probably for the next quarter-century or more". He said it would be the first general election at which the Labour Party would "with credibility, [ be] offering to lead the next government".
The election would offer the Labour Party "its greatest ever electoral opportunity". It would, he said, also present the party with its greatest challenge: to lead the country "out of economic crisis and to recovery".
Labour, said Mr Gilmore, "has never before prepared for a general election with so many people indicating their willingness to vote Labour and indicating too their preference that Labour should lead the next government".
When he set out his objective two years ago to make Irish politics a three-way contest, it was greeted with "some scepticism" but now he said it was a reality.
"There is work to do: in selecting candidates; in raising the funds necessary to compete with our opponents; in campaigning on the ground and consolidating our support; in setting out clear objectives of a Labour-led government; and above all in communicating to our increasing support our own confidence and belief that we can win the election and lead our country to recovery."
Labour was increasing its support because "people who see now what buccaneer capitalism can do to their lives and livelihoods are turning to a party what has always believed in the proper regulation of markets and in a central economic role for the State".
People, he said, had seen how Fianna Fáil's boom and bust had "led the country to ruin" and now they wanted a change of political leadership - "not just in personnel but in politics and party as well".
But he warned his colleagues to have no illusions about the task facing them: "If we win the next election we will be confronted by the biggest mess that any incoming government has ever inherited from its predecessors. It will be our job to do the cleaning up and the cleaning out.
"It is nearly two years since Fianna Fáil introduced the blanket guarantee for the banks - a massive mistake . . . We have learned more about how the disastrous decision of the blanket guarantee was made, and the suggestion is that the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance knew they were guaranteeing an insolvent bank."
A Labour-led government would be a government of reform: "We are pledged to convening a small and efficient constitutional convention to draft a modern constitution for a modern republic. We will drive reform in both the public sector and the private sector, including a clearout of bank boards.
"It's time that a little free-market discipline was applied to bankers who have failed so spectacularly, and yet are holding on to their jobs.
"We also need better mandatory standards of corporate governance, and protection for whistle-blowers. Again, despite everything that has happened to our economy, Fianna Fáil talk the talk, but never deliver on reform," Mr Gilmore said.