During the past few months a remarkable number of articles have appeared under the names of Fianna Fail ministers assuring us that Fianna Fail is a genuine social democratic party. David Andrews has used his "Andrews on Saturday" column in The Irish Times to enumerate the good works undertaken by past Fianna Fail generations on behalf of the working man.
Willie O'Dea praised the party's social democrat tradition at length. Even right-of-centre minister Dermot Ahern has gone so far as to argue that many people in other countries "consider Fianna Fail to be the labour party of Ireland". Bertie Ahern, always to the left of the rhetoric of his party colleagues, has even claimed to be a "socialist" - on the basis that he would rather look at pictures in a gallery than own them.
Now there is no doubt that there are social democratic strands in the Fianna Fail tradition. The party's roots are as a popular front, a national movement drawing on all classes of society and aspiring to "the good of the whole nation".
But how healthy are these social democratic strands today? And why is the leadership so insistent about them now? The answers are linked.
The meaning of social democracy has become confused in recent years, squeezed by the collapse of communism on one side and the shift of political debate to the right under Thatcher and Reagan. Nevertheless, a number of clear characteristics remain: social democrats are committed to the ideal of equality and are willing to back this up with measures to redistribute wealth and create equality of access. They also work together at an international level.
Social democrats recognise the wealth-generating power of the market, but also see that the gains from the operation of the market are uneven. In order to create a successful society as well as a successful economy there must be some form of redistribution between the market winners and losers.
Fifty years dominated by Fianna Fail governments has already made Ireland one of the most unequal societies in the developed world. Every aspect of the lives of the poor is researched, but the tribunals have given us only a glimpse of the lives of the rich.
While measures to equalise opportunity (such as access to education and employment) are crucial, they cannot replace the role of a progressive taxation system. In the last four budgets a Fianna Fail minister for finance indeed showed a high degree of commitment to redistribution. But Charlie McCreevy got the direction wrong, with the most massive redistribution of wealth going towards the better off.
During those budgets a two-earner household on the average wage got tax cuts worth £42 a week while a household whose income was £100,000 gained £224 a week. A couple on long-term social assistance got an extra £32 a week. Changes in inheritance, capital and probate taxes gave further benefit to those who are already winners in the market economy.
In the past, even in times of scarcity, Fianna Fail would have balanced this with some measures for the less well off. There is no better evidence of the collapse of the social democratic tradition within Fianna Fail than welfare increases, which barely match inflation at a time of unprecedented wealth.
Labour's recent policy document - New Directions, New Priorities - looked for a radical shift away from tax cuts for the better off towards investing more of our prosperity in building a quality society for everyone and directing remaining tax cuts at ordinary workers. Fianna Fail ferociously attacked this proposal, tellingly labelling it "tax and spend", a soundbite coined by American and British conservatives to attack social democrats and anyone else who wants to use public policies to tackle inequality.
Attitudes to equality of access are another criterion which separates the social democratic sheep from the free-marketing wolves. Fianna Fail are obviously willing to spend more money on the health services, but they have rejected out of hand the reforms put forward in Labour's Curing Our Ills document, which would equalise access.
Their failure to tackle the housing crisis has further enriched the wealthy, squeezed the middle classes and impoverished ordinary people - it is poverty to be forced to live in insecure, inadequate housing. Many hundreds of working-class children still leave our education system with no qualifications and no future each year while the better off enter one of the best education systems in the world. No social democrat voices in Fianna Fail can be heard saying that this is not right.
Finally, there is a strong history of international co-operation between social democratic parties. International solidarity between social democrats is fundamental both to their analysis of the global economy and to their way of working. Of course Fianna Fail ministers meet the ministers of other governments, but this is state-to-state, not party-to-party. This is not just a matter of photo opportunities, it is about seeking allies with whom you share a world view and can seek to shape the world.
The Labour Party, along with our sister party in Northern Ireland, the SDLP, represents Ireland when all the social democratic parties of Europe meet in the European Socialist Party (PES). Globally, the Labour Party is actively linked to social democratic parties in every country in the world.
Fianna Fail, on the other hand, shares a world view with no one and sits in the European Parliament in a backwater group of right-wing nationalists from France, Denmark and Italy, many with fascist links. Does Dermot Ahern talk up his notion of being Ireland's real labour party when he meets these people?
On even the loosest definition of social democracy present-day Fianna Fail fails to qualify. Of course, all parties make errors. In the past, Labour in government has made some mistaken decisions which would make a social democrat shudder. But Fianna Fail's record is not a matter of misjudgments or mistakes. The outcomes of its policies were explicitly what the modern party intended - and the direct opposite of what social democracy would seek. Why, then, are they drawing attention to this strand of party history now?
The remarkable success of Fianna Fail over the past 70 years comes from its ability to hold together its various strands of political thought and interest. The truth is that for many years, however, the social democratic tradition of Fianna Fail has got short shrift in the policies being pursued.
Since the 1970s the interests of the well off and powerful in our society have come to completely dominate the policy agenda of Fianna Fail, whether these be the beef barons, the property developers or just the wealthy who wish to cut their tax bills.
A number of factors are now combining to rip the social democratic mask away to reveal the party Fianna Fail has become. The ordinary workers who would have looked to Fianna Fail are dizzy with tribunal revelations and shocked by how far they are being left behind. They do not recognise their party any longer. They are turning away. ail leadership in South Tipperary was not the low vote, but that Fianna Fail voters did not stay away: they voted for other candidates.
In response to this, Fianna Fail is trying fiercely to reassert its social democratic credentials. Significantly, it has decided to do this not by reaching into a basket of new policies nor - given where the money went in the recent budgets - even into a basket of money. Instead, having no new achievements, it has decided to remind us of its past.
Let's be clear. This has nothing to do with the so-called Dublin 4 criticism that Fianna Fail represents something which is fundamentally corrupt in Irish society. The corrupt practices of many Fianna Fail politicians, as revealed in the tribunals, have damaged the party and the credibility of representative democracy. But such revelations are mirrored throughout Europe, on left and right, where power has been held by one party for too long.
Fianna Fail will not become any more or less social democratic as a result of tackling - or failing to tackle - the taint of corruption left by so many of its prominent members. Nor, of course, is there any reason why Fianna Fail should be a social democratic party. It is perfectly legitimate to argue that the rich should be rewarded for their effort and the poor should fall further behind, that growing inequality makes for a better society or that one of the rewards for success should be access to healthcare, housing and education for your children. But, if you pursue such policies, surely you lose the right to claim the legacy of men and women who passionately believe the opposite?
The left in Ireland has always envied Fianna Fail's capacity to attract the votes of ordinary workers. Despite leftwing argument that such voters had been misled, the most frustrating thing was that the social democratic wing within Fianna Fail was always strong enough to deliver something to these voters and justify their loyalty.
This is no longer true and the Fianna Fail leadership knows it. Traditional Fianna Fail voters have not decided yet what to do about it; they have been tempted by the Independents but recognise that this is a short-term choice.
The Labour Party, for all its commitment to redistribution, to social justice, to a new relationship between business and politics, and for all its internationalism, has not yet convinced them that it is their home.
That is the task Labour must set itself in the new year. And the ferocity of Fianna Fail's attacks suggests they know we are capable of it.
Mike Allen was general secretary of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed from 1987 to 2000. He is now general secretary of the Labour Party.