Progressive Democrats: Encyclopedia II - Progressive Democrats - Future

Progressive Democrats - Future

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 their 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.

• Liz O'Donnell has questioned the controversial Justice Minister Michael McDowell's frequent attacks on Sinn Féin, stating she believed them "unhelpful". However O'Donnell's influence is perceived to be on the wane, and McDowell's barrage seems set to continue. Recently she criticised the coalition government's failure to meet its target of 0.7% of GDP for foreign aid.

However their demise has been predicted many times before and it is expected that the 2007 Dáil Éireann election will put the matter to rest once and for all. It is likely that their performance in that election will depend on Mary Harney's performance as Minister for Health.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Future", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki