“Once again, Simon Harris has absolutely nailed it. If Fine Gael runs somebody under 30 in every local authority, Sinn Féin will be down in the single digits quicker than they can say lickety-split. The great Fine Gael revival starts today”

26 comments

  4. Getting rid of the likes of Frank Feighan might pull in the youngsters. Even if they run younger candidates they’ll still have the dinosaurs making the policies.

  6. I dont think just running younger candidates will change so easily how people feel about how a party has been running the state for years.

  8. Only thing worse than an old FG politician is a young FG politician

    The great irony is they are trying to figure out how to stop Sinn Féin firstly and not make themselves more appealing through policy

    Sinn Féin wouldn’t be popular its just government incompetence that makes Sinn Féin look like the better party for under 30’s, most under 30’s remember FF and FG screwing them over repeatedly

  10. Must be nice to live in a comfortable little bubble where you think the issue is candidate age and not living costs across the board.

  15. This is simply a vanity project for Harris. How do you do, fellow kids? He has been a leading figure of this party since they took power, almost 12 years ago. NOW he cares what young people think. He hasn’t listened up until now but he has a report now and guess what, he’s ready to listen.

  16. So rather than accepting that the two main issues at the last ballot box was housing and healthcare some how Fine Gael think it’s just demographics rather than their policies.

  17. I wish they would put half as much effort into giving us a reason to support them as they put into trying to stop sinn fein gaining support.

  19. The bottom line is that policies favouring finance capitalism in all its forms fundamentally enrich those already with a foothold at the expense of those coming after them. This the root of so much of the “pulling the ladder up” sentiment. FG as a centre-right party are fundamentally in favour of these policies, and to change or abandon them would be to fundamentally change the entire character of the party itself.

    In that context, I don’t see how any sort of rebranding or outreach is going to help. The bottom line is that policies which favour inflation of asset prices disproportionately disadvantage young people in particular, and FG’s brand of capitalism is specifically geared towards fuelling this exact process.

  20. Yeah, run a load of Killian Foley Walshes. He’s massively popular and not at all a weird little facist.

  21. What people underestimate is inertia in political parties stifling reform, even needed reform.

    Like any organisation, parties reward loyal time servers. So you join a party at 20 canvas a bit, maybe get to be a councilor at some stage, canvas a bit more, get the run at the dail or seanad in your 30s or 40s etc.

    The reason you don’t really get TDs in their 20s in parties is because there’s a ton of loyal people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc who’ve served their time on party committees and stood in the rain handing out leaflets and it’s their turn to run or their seat to defend and they’re not giving up on that for a young lady or guy. Why would they?

    The exception at the minute is SF. They’re a growing party so there’s a ton of opportunities for young people. But SF will reach peak SF and then party advancement for the young will be subject to the usual limitations.

    This same dynamic applies mostly to cabinet positions. The old guard get first dibs. Really obvious with Labour where it was Pat Rabbittee, Gilmore and Burton as minister and the juniors were much younger Sherlock and O’Riordan. Then the young ones rose up and replaced the leadership cadre.

    We can see it in parties with the career of Averil Power in FF. Martin identified her as having all the right stuff – educated, smart, media friendly, progressive, a woman (that matters) and young. She led FF’s gay marriage referendum campaign, and by her own account all the old guys in the party didn’t care. They old guys knew their voters were conservative people and there was no votes in campaigning or putting your head above the parapet. Power quit FF because it was a lost cause for her generation and concerns.

    This type of ossification of party mobility means that parties’ leadership reflect values 20-30 years out of date.

    You’ve probably heard shite from an uncle like work hard and you’ll get a house, you’re all too soft now. Imagine that uncle was a TD. No amount of reports on housing and cost of living will convince them that their experience is just not relevant. Mentally they’re living in a country that no longer exists.

    ​

    * We can sort of divide up the parties like this
    * SF – young people party – voters probably don’t own a house
    * FG – middle age people party – voters probably own a house
    * FF – old people party – voters probably own a house / have secure accomodation via social housing scheme for the 70s

    So Harris can say get young people to join and that’s necessary but not sufficient for FG. They need to adopt the policies that are pro-young people and the block on that is that the party is a middle age people party with pro-middle age people policies. High house prices and look after pensions.

    FF despite being a generation older in the main have a pretty much identical set of policy goals as FG.

    The lack of internal dynamism is killing FF, that’s why their leader is just 9 years younger than Bertie Ahern who was Taoiseach until 2008, when most of the readers of this comment were under 10.

    FG probably be all right in that they’re a generation younger in the main and will always be able to rely on the vote of professionals. But there’s no version of FG that’s going to start rebalancing the economy to be pro-people in their 20s and 30s.

    SF might try and for that they’ll be called economic lunatics by everyone who is well middle ages and old age.

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