On Saturday evening, the main suite in Citywest Hotel reverberated to thunderous cheers and hollers of some 2,000 of the party faithful as Michael Martin delivered the leaders speech at Fianna Fail’s final Ard Fheis of this Dail.

At times, it was reminiscent of the halcyon days of yore when De Valera, Lemass, Lynch, Haughey and Ahern sent their troops back to their constituencies to prepare for their rightful place in Government.

As their speeches reached their crescendo, there was always a stampede to see which of the 80 or so TD’s, plus numerous Senators and election hopefuls, would be the first to touch the hem of the leaders garment and by extension be on TV.

Only the partisan would dispute that Martin is the best orator of the four main party leaders and he did deliver a finely crafted speech on Saturday evening. As his final words drifted into the ether and the obligatory standing ovation commenced, the stampede to the podium was more like the rush for a late night taxi.

A number of the new women candidates plus the ubiquitous Sean Fleming comprised the majority of the dozen or so who genteelly headed for the stage. While this may appear trivial it is indicative of how far the party’s fortunes have fallen. Apart from the traumatic election of 2011, this is the only time in modern history that Fianna Fail will not field enough candidates to allow them to get an overall majority.

A close analysis of Martin’s speech leads me to believe that Fianna Fail has embarked on a new narrative that largely exonerates them from the issues that still bedevil this State.

This narrative is that, yes some mistakes were made, they have apologised for them but they did bring prosperity, fairness and equality to the Irish people.  The real damage was done by the bankers both here and abroad which coupled with the worldwide economic conditions left the party carrying the can politically. They have taken their punishment and it is time to move on. After all doesn’t the Banking Inquiry prove that this was the case!

Martin’s speech totally ignored any reference to pre-2011 apart from the crucial exception of the late Brian Lenihan’s strategy to recover from the crash.

It is as if the calendar was reset to year zero in March 2011.

This theme was also taken up by former Minister Mary Hanafin and Barry Cowen on both TV and radio in the past few days and there is a degree of belligerence to both their words and attitude.

They strongly argue that the Lenihan recovery plan was the perfect blueprint to rectify the problems while ensuring the least pain to the plain people of Ireland. However this current Government has implemented a bastardised version of the plan which was aimed at the well off at the expense of the vast majority of the population.

What did Micheal Martin say on Saturday evening?

• He claimed that under the current Government there were clear differences between those with well-paid skilled jobs and those with low pay and poor conditions. There were also differences within and between regions.
• He also stated that support for education and training had always been a core value of the party.
• He went on to promise that decent jobs would be provided and enterprise would be supported.
• Fianna Fail would deal with the crisis in health and waiting lists plus ending the scandal of so many patients on trolleys,
• The strategic investment fund would be utilized to provide 45,000 social houses.
• There would be a new emphasis on supporting those with disabilities.
• They would reduce the USC and eliminate it for many.
• Introduce a childcare support tax credit and expand maternity leave.
• Scrap Irish Water.
• Increase the rent supplement immediately.
• Introduce mandatory sentences for repeat burglary offenders and assaults on the elderly.
• These statements presuppose that under Fianna Fail’s tenure everyone was treated equally and with fairness.

What's the reality?

The reality is of course very different.

The issues identified by the Fianna Fail leader are all valid and need addressed but many of these issues were equally difficult for the previous administration dating back to 1997.

His promise to provide decent jobs are a far cry from the legacy his party, of which he spent 14 years in Cabinet, left behind them in 2011.

Workforce

In 2011, 424,843 persons in the workforce were unemployed and this represented 19% of that workforce. This compared to 2006 when the figure was 8.5%. Some 300,000 people have emigrated as a result of the economic crash; otherwise the unemployment figures would have been even worse. Many of those who left are from the generation of young talented and enterprising people. The number of people employed has increased by 176,000 since 2011.

His contention that under this Government there are clear differences between the well off and the poorer elements in society are absolutely true but the fact is that they were equally as stark during the period when he was in the Cabinet, except of course for much of that fourteen year period he and his colleagues did not have too much concern about finding the funds for whatever they wanted to do.

As in many other sectors there was a clear inequality between different constituencies as the following map shows. For example Donegal had 26.2% unemployed while at the other end of the scale Dublin Rathdown was at 10.2%.

Education

His claim that education is a core value of the party is at odds with the reality of the clear cut inequality in access to third level education which is the driving force for a modern economy. In 2011, the situation saw a clear divide between the haves and have-nots, with on one hand the D4 constituency of Dublin Bay South seeing 53.7% of its adult population with a degree yet 100 kilometres south, Wexford only has 16.5% in the same category.

The inequality is not just between constituencies but is also very marked within them. As an example Dublin North-West has very diverse numbers of those with degrees particularly in the poorer city areas.

Similar inequalities occur in every single constituency in the country and all this occurred during a period when Ireland was regarded as one of the richest nations on earth. Education standards, of course, have a knock-on effect when it comes to employment levels and the ability to attract investment and jobs.

Health

His pledge to cut the numbers on trolleys in A&E ring somewhat hollow as in 2008 in the Eastern Health Region, the 8 acute hospitals, including all of the Dublin hospitals had 34,074 for the year. For the same hospitals in 2015 the figure was 33,844 and this despite the Exchequer having considerably less money over the previous five years compared to the five years prior to 2008.

Housing

He has also pledged to provide some 45,000 social houses. Based on the current budget for social housing the cost of these 45,000 houses would be in the region of €8 billion. Fianna Fail plan to use the Strategic Investment Fund to pay for the development. In 2015 the Fund had €7.6 billion available in its discretionary portfolio. However there is no costing attached to the proposal.

Disability

Everyone would be in favour of a sharper and more focused approach to dealing with the situation in regards to those with disabilities. By 2011 there were just fewer than 600,000 people in the State with a disability which was a 50% increase on 2006. Effectively the cost of caring for those with disability would be unsustainable was it not for the extensive support from voluntary carers. The CSO has calculated that in 2011 some 327 million hours of support was provided by these carers thereby saving the State some €2.9 billion were those hours to be paid at the minimum wage.

Irish Water

He produced no hard figures on the cost of scrapping Irish Water. Sinn Fein claim that it could be done for €141 million while Brendan Howlin counterclaims that it would be €900 million.

Either way, it would be about more than just money as it would result in the loss of jobs and the need to fund the repair and maintenance of the current system.

The Reality

While he said he would not be indulging in auction politics and that all proposals would be independently costed, a number of promises were made for which he failed to give any indication of their actual cost.

The reality is that most of the claims of failure by this Government actually relate to issues that are a legacy of the years when Fianna Fail were the dominant party. During most of that time the country was purportedly awash with money.

We await with interest the independent costings when the manifesto is published in the next few weeks. We also wait to see if Fianna Fail will continue with its year zero policy.

As always the Irish people with a ballot paper in their hand will be the final arbiter of whether or not Fianna Fail have been forgiven for bringing the country to its knees.