Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has defended Fianna Fáil's use of Galway Race Week to raise funds and has denied that the party's annual tent at Ballybrit is "elitist".
Mr Ahern also dismissed as a "nonsense" last night the suggestion that the party's race tent was a main focus of a report into the Fianna Fáil constituency organisation in Galway West.
"All that it is just a few lines," Mr Ahern told The Irish Times. "It was a bit of a game to leak it and I know who did it too. All the organisation asked for was that we should use race week to have a more inclusive process, and what is in the report about that is dead sound."
The report, which was presented to the Taoiseach at a party event in the Sacre Coeur Hotel, Salthill, yesterday evening, was compiled by a working group chaired by Nicholas Ó Conchubhair of Leitir Móir. It examined structures, membership, communication and preparation for elections, and recommends that the comhairle Dáil cheantar draft a "vision statement" for Galway West.
Lack of consultation by the organisation's "upper levels" with the general body of members is highlighted. Some sections of party meetings should be held in Irish, election candidates should not run individual campaigns, and contact should be made with immigrants as part of a more extensive recruitment campaign, the report recommends.
On fundraising, it says Galway West members felt the "present format" of the Galway Race Week tent created "a sense of elitism and isolates many people". It recommends that Fianna Fáil headquarters "review this event and look at ways to make it more open and inclusive".
The Taoiseach said he accepted the report's recommendations, but said the party depended on Galway Race Week as one of five key annual fundraisers.
"We did away with getting any kind of decent subscriptions. We have to run things like Galway Race Week, which is great fun. The kind of spin is that everyone who goes into the tent is a massively rich person, but the people in my constituency who come are ordinary Joe Soaps who put their hands in their pocket and have a great week in Galway.
"We can't run the party without it," he added.
Critics of the practice within the party were "the same people who would be ringing up and saying there are no posters in my street" during an election, he added.
However, the format of the party's social events during Galway Race Week had been changed, he said - starting with a €15 a head dance in the Radisson Hotel on the Tuesday night. Ógra Fianna Fáil would be allocated use of the tent on Friday, while the local organisation would have use of it over the weekend.
