Speech by Minister Dempsey at Fianna Fáil Roscommon/South Leitrim Fianna Fáil Conference

One of the biggest divisions in Irish politics at the moment is between those who spend all their time trying to win votes and those who spend their time on trying to tackle the biggest public issues. In the middle of the biggest world economic downturn in 70 years, and with European governments faced with unprecedented pressures, there are still parties who oppose everything automatically. Every time a tough decision is required, no matter how vital it is for the economy, they try to find a political angle on it. This is a short-term tactic and any political benefit they get from it will also be short-term.

This is a period of great volatility in political support as well as many other areas. Many people are uncertain about the future and many are angry with the new and serious pressures which they face. It’s understandable that some politicians would try and gain on the basis of an approach which talks about problems rather than offers real solutions. However, there will come a point where people will step back and take another look at the behaviour of the parties.

I absolutely believe that the single most important thing which this party can do for the next election is to not join the other parties in a permanent campaign. We have to focus on the job of building a strong recovery. 2008 and 2009 were incredibly tough years which required rapid responses to the growing economic problems. We didn’t get everything right by any means and we frequently didn’t spend enough time talking to the public about why action was needed. But what we did do was to get the most important decision right – which was to take sustained and direct action to stabilise the deteriorating public finances. We believed that this was the only way to restore confidence in the Irish economy and put in place a foundation for recovery. The European Commission’s comments earlier this week about Ireland’s prospects are the latest confirmation that stability has been achieved and we are turning a corner.

While we’ve been taking action the opposition parties have been campaigning – and there’s no doubt that their current support levels are up. Anyone who believes that this means that the outcome of the 2012 election is already decided is fooling themselves. In country after country in the last few years it has been seen that this is a new era in terms of electoral volatility – with major changes often happening during campaigns. For example, one year ago the gap between the major British parties was as high as 24%, with the General election result felt to be a foregone conclusion.

At this important moment in our country’s history the job of every member of the Dáil is to put politics aside and to use our mandate to focus on the major public issues. We were not elected to spend all our time electioneering. Let the opposition take the public’s support for granted if they want. The party which goes before the people and can say that, while others put party first, it worked to get Ireland through the recession will have a powerful message.