Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said that Labour will enter negotiations with Fine Gael for what he described as a substantial "renewal of purpose" for government for the remainder of its term.
Mr Gilmore indicated that his party will press for this major change in direction during the course of his speech at Labour’s annual 1916 commemoration in Arbour Hill today.
Speaking to media before delivering his speech, Mr Gilmore was asked whether his party would now seek to renegotiate the Programme for Government.
He said no but added there was now an onus on Government to address in a very focused way the problems people are facing today.
Asked would the “renewal” involved sitting down and negotiating some kind of formal agreement with Fine Gael, he replied: “It always involves discussion with our coalition partners but I think what we have to do is look at the problems facing people today.”
Setting out the argument, Mr Gilmore said there was a need for a renewal of purpose.
“I think everybody accepts and agrees that we did a great job in taking the State out of the bailout, in turing around what was the worst recession in the history of this independent State.
“It has to have a purpose. That [exiting the bailout] was never an end in itself. We need to deal with the question of who that recovery is benefitting.
“We have to deal with the issues that are alive in our society - the continued need to create jobs, the housing situation, the incomes on which people live. There is a need for a renewal of our purpose.”
Mr Gilmore also spoke at some length in relation to allegations that are emerging from new Garda whistleblowers.
Responding to the latest allegations he said they were serious but the most important thing was that they were dealt with as promptly and effectively as possibly.
He said that one of the problems regarding the allegations was that many of them were allowed to drift for an inordinately long time without being properly addressed.
Mr Gilmore indicated that a systemic root and branch review of the whole Garda oversight apparatus might be necessary, saying the principal legislation, the Garda Síochána Act 2005, was deficient in several key respects.
He said the manner in which the Garda Síochána operated had become an anachronism in a modern society.
“We are trying to run a police service in the 21st century with a structure that comes from the 1920s.
“The Garda was established at a time when there was civil war, where there was a threat to the State. That’s where the reporting structure and the very hierarchical nature of the Garda comes from, where the Commissioner reports directly to the Minister for Justice. We need to modernise that and have an independent Garda authority,” he said.
Mr Gilmore said that the problems in the Garda had not emerged in the past few months and his party had long held the view that the 2005 Act had not achieved its purpose.
“We have been arguing over the decade for the establishment of a garda authority.
“We have been arguing for a much more robust way of dealing with complaints and allegations. The changes that we are now making - the fundamental change in the management and governance of the Garda - are the most fundamental since the 1920s. There is the fact that a garda can go directly to GSOC with a complaint.
“We were never happy with the idea of the confidential recipient. We thought at the time [2005 and 2007 when the regulations for the recipient were established] that that was a way of getting around a robust way of having allegations and complaints dealt with. The fact that we will be applying Freedom of Information and whistleblower legislation to the Garda is also important,” he said.
