The (in
Liberal Party in the
Republic Of Ireland founded in
1985 . It is a member of the
European Liberal Democrat And Reform Party (ELDR), which is a constituent part of the
Alliance Of Liberals And Democrats For Europe (ALDE).
The Progressive Democrats’ economic policies are based on liberal economics. They support a free enterprise, low tax and pro-business policy base.
The Progressive Democrats consider privatisation on a case by case basis. They pushed for the privatisation of
Aer Lingus because they believed that the company had no future if it didn’t have access to private capital. On the other hand, they strongly opposed their coalition partner’s plans to privatise
Aer Rianta , arguing that the only thing worse than a public monopoly is a private monopoly. They succeeded in preventing the company from being privatised, and broke it up into competing companies instead. They currently plan to privatise Ireland’s prison system because they claim that it isn’t delivering value for money at present. Despite having the highest ratio of prison wardens to prisoners in the world (at almost one to one), the overtime budget is huge. This is a legacy of the political conflict in the northeast of Ireland, when prison warders were granted generous work conditions to counteract intimidation from
Republican paramilitaries. On the other hand, their critics point out the dangers of handing over responsibility for administering prisons to business whose shareholders’ interests come before the general public’s.
Regarding social welfare provision, they believe in selective rather than universal benefits, working under the ideal “help only the people who cannot help themselves”. Many see their policy of cutting social welfare benefits as a policy designed to encourage inequality in Irish society and favour higher income groups. Likewise, the party has been a strong supporter of low taxation. As the ESRI stated in 2002: 'On balance, budgets over the past 10 to 20 years have been more favourable to high income groups than low income groups, but particularly so during periods of high growth.''The distributive impact of budgetary policy: A medium term view' Tim Callan, Mary Keeney, John Walsh, ESRI Dublin, 2002.
The current Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform, " economy, although they deny any responsibility for the resultant rise in inequality and attendant social problems.
Party leaders have often rejected the idea that they are ruled by ideology alone. Party president. Mary Harney, on becoming health minister said ''"I don't get my politics from any ideology, I get it from my experience and common sense"''. As a party widely perceived to represent the high-income groups of Irish society, it has been remarked that the Progressive Democrats' attitude to state subsidising is informed by an analysis of how it serves the interests of business and wealthy elites, often at the expense of social programmes.
The party was founded in
1985 by
Desmond O'Malley , a former senior minister in
Fianna Fáil governments under
Jack Lynch and
Charles J. Haughey .
O'Malley was a strong opponent of Haughey and was involved in a number of leadership heaves against the controversial and popular Haughey. He was finally expelled from Fianna Fáil for ''conduct unbecoming'' a member when he refused to support Fianna Fáil's opposition to the introduction of contraception.
O'Malley joined with Fianna Fáil members
Mary Harney ,
Bobby Molloy and
Pearse Wyse ,
Fine Gael TD
Michael Keating and former Fine Gael activist
Michael McDowell , to set up the new party. The breakaways were dissatisfied with the policies of existing parties, which they viewed as being insufficiently liberal (both economically and on social issues such as divorce and contraception).
In the
1987 general election the new party won 14 seats and 11.9% of the vote, becoming the third largest party in the
Dáil .
In 1989 they formed a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, with Charles Haughey as
Taoiseach . Haughey was replaced in
February 1992 by
Albert Reynolds .
After the collapse of Reynolds' first administration later in 1992, O'Malley retired from the leadership of the party. Mary Harney became the new leader and the first woman to lead any of the major Irish political parties. Harney currently serves as
Tánaiste (deputy prime minister).
In total the Progressive Democrats have participated in coalition governments three times, all with Fianna Fáil (1989-1992; 1997-2002; 2002 to date). Mary Harney has said it makes "no difference" if they are in government with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael as long as they can get policy implemented, "
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In the
2002 General Election , the party defied expectations by doubling its Dáil seats to eight, although its share of the vote declined slightly to 4%.
It is believed that they attracted the votes of many Fine Gael voters who were afraid of a Fianna Fail majority and believed that Fine Gael's economic policy in the election was reckless.
Both Progressive Democrats and other commentators have suggested that the party has had a greater influence on government policy since 1997 than might be expected from its size. This belief appears to have some basis – as of September 2004, the party controlled two of the most important cabinet positions (
Justice and
Health ) despite having less than one-tenth of the seats of its coalition partner Fianna Fáil.
In a widely reported speech
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2000 , the current party leader, Mary Harney, was perceived to express the desire that Ireland become ''"closer to Boston than Berlin"'', adopting US free market models for economic development, health, education, and other services rather than European social democratic models because she believed that the social democratic countries, while having more equality had bad economies and high unemployment. She said that the economic growth did not come at the cost of society: '".....And did we have to pay some very high price for pursuing this policy option? Did we have to dismantle the welfare state? Did we have to abandon the concept of social inclusion? The answer is no: we didn't".'
Elizabeth Cullen of NUI Maynooth, a committee member of the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association, has on the other hand countered this assertion by stating: "The evidence assembled suggests that Ireland in fact has paid, is paying and will continue to pay a very high price for adopting American ways and moving closer to Boston."
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The PDs face a number of challenges in future elections:
- Their support base is not as broad as the other parties. Their middle-class professional core vote tends to shift support between the PDs and Fine Gael . Given Fine Gael's strong performance in the European Parliament elections of 2004, they may pose a significant challenge to the PDs in the next general election.
- Unlike other parties they do not have many stable seats. At most three PD seats are guaranteed — Mary Harney, Liz O'Donnell and Tim O'Malley's seat in Limerick East, which they have always held.
- Due to their lengthy partnership with Fianna Fáil (the current coalition has been in office since 1997) the electorate has come to associate them with Fianna Fáil, and they may suffer from any scandals or drop in the other party's support.
- The perceived antagonism between Liz O'Donnell and Justice Minister Michael McDowell. She has questioned his frequent attacks on Sinn Féin, stating she believed them "unhelpful". He in turn seemd to be intensifying his efforts to portray Sinn Féin as an unreconstructed terrorist organisation. She also recently she criticised the coalition government's failure to meet its target of 0.7% of GDP for Foreign Aid .
It is likely that their performance in that election will depend on Mary Harney's performance as Minister for Health.
