Negotiating teams for the Labour Party and Democratic Left will this morning resume discussions on the few outstanding unresolved details of a draft agreement designed to bring about an amalgamation of the two organisations under the banner of the Labour Party. The process has been a relatively fast one. It had its genesis in a proposal by Mr Dick Spring, the outgoing Labour Party leader, in 1997, that the two parties should combine to establish a broad left platform. Even before that, there were indications that Democratic Left had stalled, in terms of growth, and its more ambitious TDs explored the possibility of a liaison with Labour. Traditional rivalries at constituency and trade union level generated some difficulties for the negotiators, as did personality differences. But the negotiating teams, headed by Mr Brendan Howlin and Mr Eamon Gilmore, have worked expeditiously in producing a draft agreement for consideration by the officers and members of both parties.
Pressure for an early restructuring of the parties has come from the timing of next June's local and European elections. It was felt that any new political arrangement would have to be in place by the end of this year if it was to impact on the public consciousness and candidates were to benefit from the synergies released. The ambition of the party leaders, Mr Ruairi Quinn and Mr Proinsias De Rossa, to ensure the product of the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts is a tall order at this stage because of the enormous popularity of Fianna Fail in the opinion polls and the slow growth of the Green Party and Sinn Fein. But public sentiment is vulnerable to rapid change.
Success of the new departure will depend on the policies, the leadership and the luck of the restructured Labour Party. In that regard, the leader of Democratic Left, Mr De Rossa, is to become president of the new organisation until 2001. At that time, the post will be filled by election from the floor of the annual conference. In much the same way, Mr Quinn will become party leader, subject to an election by party members in five years' time. Sharing front-bench positions between the existing ranks of spokesmen will generate friction. But such detail will hardly figure in the document submitted to the parties for approval. Members of the general councils of both parties will meet next Thursday to consider the proposals and, on their adoption, they will be referred upwards to special conferences of both parties for final approval. At this stage, the outcome would appear to be a foregone conclusion.
Amalgamating the parties is the easier part of the task facing Mr Quinn and Mr De Rossa. Putting shape on new Labour's bones, in terms of policies and political direction, and making it more relevant to the citizens of our increasingly divided society is the ultimate challenge.