Fianna Fáil's abandonment of its roots, through its alliance with the Progressive Democrats, has created a great opportunity for the Labour Party to make an electoral breakthrough, party leader Pat Rabbitte said at the weekend.
He said that the conditions had been created in which a Labour-led government was a realisable ambition. "This may require more than one election to achieve, but it can be done," he said.
Mr Rabbitte added that Labour's record of achievement in government in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s had been quite outstanding. "Whether it is the expansion of social protection, the protection of democratic institutions, the search for peace, adherence to fiscal discipline, the promotion of economic growth, engagement with the European project, or the expansion of personal liberty, we have made fundamental contributions to the make-up of modern Ireland."
He said that any analysis of the 1992-1997 period would show a record of fiscal discipline, social commitment and a radical programme to enhance personal freedom. "It was Labour in government that carried through the introduction of divorce, freedom of information, contraceptive rights, equality legislation and gay rights. Freedoms which seemed almost impossible at one time, but which are taken for granted today."
Mr Rabbitte said the challenge now was to match those greater personal freedoms with collective capacities such as the capacity to provide decent healthcare to all, the collective capacity to organise transport, to control crime and make every community secure.
"Many of these problems, which seem so intractable now, are minor when compared to the great challenges that we have confronted and overcome in the past. Only a radical approach will resolve them. The electorate will not reward Labour in government for timidity," said Mr Rabbitte.
He was speaking at a seminar in the Irish Labour History Museum in Dublin to celebrate the life of the late Brendan Corish, who was Tánaiste between 1973 and 1977 and who served as Labour leader from 1960 to 1977. The seminar followed the handing over to the Irish Labour History Museum by the Corish family of the former Labour leader's personal papers.
Responding later, the Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, said that Mr Rabbitte's claim that a Labour-led government was a possibility showed just how deluded he had become.
"The Labour vote today is actually less than what Labour and Democratic Left achieved when losing the 1997 election. The sum of the two parts has actually been less. Nowhere was this clearer than in the 2004 [ local] elections. There was a huge swing against the Government two years ago yet the Labour party recorded a derisory half-point increase in its percentage support."
