A NUMBER of stalwart Fine Gael party members, including former TDs and senators, launched a scathing criticism of the party’s handling of its presidential nomination and campaign.
While the Fine Gael leadership was trying to put a brave face on its performance in the election, party officials in Limerick were blunt in their assessment of the heavy loss.
“Look, we f**ked up,” is how one long-time Limerick Fine Gael official put it.
Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys conceded to landslide winner Catherine Connolly on Saturday, who took home close to a million votes (914,143) nationally compared to Humphrey’s 424,987. Fianna Fáil dropout Jim Gavin took 103,568 votes at last Friday’s ballot.
Ms Connolly took the lion’s share of votes across Limerick, with 16,520 (57.91 per cent) in the county and 17,659 (65 per cent) in the city. Ms Humphreys trailed behind with 9,987 (35 per cent) in the county and 7,797 (28 per cent) in the city.
Jim Gavin received 2,022 votes (7 per cent) in the county and 1,533 in the city (5 per cent).
Across Limerick there were 8,332 spoiled or invalid votes, out of an overall turnout of 63,850.
Overall turnout in the city stood at 40.9 per cent and 44.78 in the county.
Left reeling from Saturday’s presidential election result was former Limerick Fine Gael TD and Senator Michael Finucane.
Mr Finucane said, despite canvassing for Heather Humphreys, party leadership made a “cardinal mistake” by putting her forward for the Áras.
He also claimed Fine Gael party grassroots had “no say” in the party’s nomination for president.
“People in the party won’t like what I’m saying, but I’m very annoyed and very cross because I do believe they picked the wrong candidate and we had no say,” Mr Finucane hit out.
The result left Finucane “more depressed” than any other election, he said, including when he lost his Fine Gael seat by the narrowest of margins – one vote – to running mate Dan Neville in 2002.
Finucane, a former chair of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, said Fine Gael leadership “made the wrong selection” and should have backed the party’s MEP Sean Kelly.
The Limerick Fine Gael stalwart acknowledged that last weekend’s result reinforced signs of a political “sea change” from the centre to the left.
“You see the sea change where Connolly did extremely well in County Limerick, and we got just around 30 per cent of the vote, that’s it,” he said.
“There’s a message in that in relation to how the electorate think out there.
The 82-year-old, who was part of the Fine Gael tally group at the Limerick count centre, said the party will have to conduct an internal review of the “strategy” it adopted “in relation to the type of procedure that exists with regards to the selection of a candidate”.
He argued that the upper echelons of Fine Gael should remember the ordinary grassroots members are the life-blood of the party, suggesting there’s a “lack of recognition” for “the people who slog the countryside for the party”.
Party member in Limerick, Jim O’Farrell, said he would also have supported Sean Kelly for the party’s nomination if he had been given a vote and called for a review of the party’s nomination process.
Limerick Fine Gael TD and Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan defended the party’s management of the nomination process and subsequent performance by Heather Humphreys.
“I wouldn’t say it was a colossal failure of Fine Gael. Fine Gael was the only party to contest this election. The winning candidate had the backing of six different political parties,” said Minster O’Donovan.
“We have, as a party, retained our share of the vote, and we had an excellent candidate,” he added.
Minister O’Donovan said Fine Gael selected Mairead McGuinness “who, for health reasons, couldn’t contest the election, and Heather Humphries stood forward”.
When it was put to Minister O’Donovan that some within Fine Gael said they would have preferred if Sean Kelly had been the party’s pick, he replied: “We have an internal process for selection. We went through a process, and ultimately that process resulted in our candidate being selected.”
Mr O’Donovan said that while Fine Gael’s vote share in the presidential election had increased, there would be a review of the party’s management of this campaign.
“We’ll always examine results of elections,” he said.