Former Minister Collins set to chair major FF re-organisation in Galway
Date Published: {J}
No less a figure than former minister and MEP Gerry Collins is expected in Galway in the next few weeks as the consultative process that has been going on behind-the-scenes in FF or reorganising the party in the major cities, really gets into its stride in Galway City.
The idea is to tackle the issue of revitalising the FF grassroots in all the main cities. The in-depth look at organisation was begun by Brian Cowen before he became Taoiseach, but the business of change was given a new impetus by the dismal results which FF produced in the Local Elections just a year ago.
Gerry Collins will be involved in a detailed consultative process which will be held in the coming weeks, with all sections of the FF organisation in Galway City being contacted and asked for their views.
The aim will be major reform and reorganisation to take into consideration the changes in population areas, the development of possible new candidates for the 2014 Local Elections, and to welcome any new commitment by people to politics at local level.The review will be going on in all of the key cities – Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway – where FF must do better in the future, even if the party’s present opinion poll standing is dreadful and it is trailing behind Labour, according to the latest Red C poll in the Sunday Business Post.
In fact, Galway City FF might be able to claim that it did better than a lot of other urban areas. After all, in the 2004 Local Elections, there were only two FF councillors elected in the Galway City, but three were elected in 2009 (Councillors Michael Crowe, Ollie Crowe and Peter Keane), with a marginal increase in the city FF vote compared to other cities nationally where FF were hammered.
However, three seats out of fifteen in Galway City, where FF could once command six seats on a City Council that then had only 12-members, shows how the Fianna Fail fortunes have nosedived in the city – a big part of the fall, of course, is the presence of the PDs over a number of years, and a burgeoning Labour Party, who now have five City Council seats.
FF was “in its pomp” in Galway City when it was led by then Minister Bobby Molloy. But, after Molloy left in 1986 with the founding of the PDs, the Fianna Fail party in the city never really recovered from the organisational, or seats, blow.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.