Simon and Enda rally the Fine Gael troops

There was a real carnival atmosphere at Ireland West Airport on Sunday for the Fine Gael conference. It was a mix of a day at the races, the post-church, pre-meal, part of a wedding or an indoor Electric Picnic. It was a mini Árd Fheis, of sorts, with food and beverages, candidate stickers and posters, smiles and handshakes.

Sal and Paddy Heneghan, from Castlebar, provided a beautiful soundtrack to the event on the harp and the pipes. You can’t beat live music.

Nina Carberry, the shiny new MEP, was the MC, and she wooed the home crowd by telling them that Mayo held a special place in her heart.

“From the winners’ enclosure at Ballinrobe Races to hearing my name read out in Castlebar at the European election count, announcing me as a new MEP for the Midlands North West Constituency,” the retired champion jockey said.

“This campaign is now on the home straight,” she said, “and what you can feel at the doors on the canvass is energy.” 

When she said that with one last push, the party could achieve “those three seats” in Mayo, the four seated candidates felt the eyes of the room on them as everyone wondered which one would be the unlucky one.

Introducing Iar Taoiseach Enda Kenny was one of the keynote speakers and he was in terrific form.

“To succeed in politics,” Kenny said, “you need commitment, ambition and energy. You have to want it.

Politics, in Ireland, is a hard task.” 

Gradually the essential requirements list was getting longer.

He said nobody was talking about ghost estates and unemployment now.

“The country has moved in a decade, from being jump-started by AJ Chopra and the Troika to being one of the top twenty wealthiest countries in the world,” he said, and the audience signalled their agreement with generous applause. 

Kenny spoke about the economic difficulties other countries were experiencing and the threat posed by Russia.

“Irish people need to focus now on where we are, on what we have and what the future might be. We need politicians who bring decisiveness, clarity and energy.

“This is no time to be messing around with parties who don’t know how to run their own affairs never mind run a country,” the former Taoiseach said. 

And again, the faithful applauded.

Kenny praised Simon Harris as was to be expected. After all, he is the current party leader and the Taoiseach, but also, it was Kenny who first brought Harris into the cabinet ten years ago.

He said Harris was able to bring people with him.

“Bringing people with you is the most important element of politics.” 

By now, the four candidates were probably wondering how many more necessary ingredients they would need to possess and display, before they could dismount from the stools and bolt to the less demanding task of knocking on doors.

Kenny described the candidates as the best quality team he had seen in a long time.

“We didn’t get Sam,” he shouted, “but we have Simon and I want you to give him a big Knock welcome, a big Mayo welcome, and go out on Friday and get these candidates elected, all four of them if possible, and if not, certainly three out of the four.” 

And as the audience applauded and Kenny and Harris shook hands and swapped places, we were back again to selecting three out of the four.

Simon Harris was well-received by the audience. He had suffered a double blow in the days immediately before the Knock gala after controversially walking away from a care worker without properly engaging with her issue (an act that was widely broadcast and viewed on social media) and had subsequently apologised. Fine Gael also dropped in voter popularity in an opinion poll published on Sunday morning. While he was contrite in his repeated apology on the former, he dismissed the latter as all experienced politicians do when polls don’t favour them at any given time. The poll on election day is the one that counts. That sort of thing.

Like all experienced politicians, he made promises, too, of course. Lots of them, from childcare to healthcare, agriculture to education. 

He said Fine Gael would cap childcare fees at €200 a month per child or €600 for a family with three or more children, reduce taxes, ensuring nobody on the average wage would pay the higher rate of tax, abolish the Universal Social surcharge on the self-employed, and link social insurance benefits more closely to earnings like pay-related parental leave.

On agriculture, the party would fight for the retention of Ireland’s Nitrates Directive derogation with a Cabinet Committee on Water Quality, deliver a comprehensive farm succession policy and provide financial supports to farmers working to help address the climate crisis.

Fine Gael would pursue energy independence by making Ireland a Green Energy Leader expanding renewable energy sources, while ensuring security of supply and avoiding bill shocks, and create a new Department of Infrastructure, Climate and Transport to deliver essential projects like energy, water, roads and public transport necessary to support the delivery of housing for a growing population. These policies, he said, would create 300,000 more jobs.

And once again the eyes of the audience were on the four, wondering which three would be part of that 300,000.