There was little enough in the way of new policies announced by the political parties at their think-ins this week, as they gathered to prepare for the next week’s return of the Dáil. Beyond rallying the parliamentary troops and getting some coverage , it was sometimes hard to discern the point of the events.
Fianna Fáil was first out of the blocks on Monday at the Horse and Jockey in Co Tipperary. It was perhaps the most upbeat Fianna Fáil conference since the party’s return to Government. Tánaiste Micheál Martin pledged to lead the party into the next general election, and reprised familiar themes when he attacked Sinn Féin.
Labour and the Social Democrats gathered on Thursday in Maynooth and Dublin respectively. Labour leader Ivana Bacik focused on childcare, calling for the State to cap costs for parents at no more than €50 a week. Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns sought to claim the mantle of change, and bluntly said she did not want to see cuts to the USC in the Budget. Opposition leaders are usually loath to oppose such a popular move.
Yesterday Sinn Féin welcomed back Mary Lou McDonald after a period of convalescence to its think-in, where she was received by delegates with an understandable mixture of rapture and relief. She hammered home her message of change, with the party’s usual focus on the housing issue.
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In Tramore Green party leader Eamon Ryan declared the party to be the most effective junior coalition partner in Irish history. That is a debatable claim, but Ryan’s approach of underlining the party’s contribution in Government is the right one.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, addressing the Fine Gael gathering in Limerick, promised relief for the “squeezed middle” in the Budget and issued a not-so-veiled rebuke to the British government.
Next week, Government and Opposition face off again in the Dáil, when TDs return to Leinster House. With the boundary changes now settled, and the search for candidates underway in earnest, all politics from now will be conducted with one eye – at least - on the next general election,