Mary Harney TD, To address the conference tonight
Almost 700 delegates are expected to attend the Progressive Democrats conference which opens tonight in Galway. The Conference will provide the party's springboard for the local elections and will be a stocktaking exercise in the aftermath of its poor showing in the last general election,
This is the first Progressive Democrats Conference since they lost six seats at the general election. But the sting has been taken out of those losses by their participation in Government. Tonight their leader Mary Harney will encourage them to put their defeats behind them and face the upcoming electoral challenges with confidence and determination. The party's finances are not in good shape, they owe almost £400,000 and there is doubt over whether or not they will be able to field candidates in the European elections. But they are determined to carry their message of the need to build a New Ireland to the electorate in the local elections.
In a few weeks time they will launch a new policy platform but over the weekend we will hear a lot about their new buzz word competitiveness and the need to consolidate the gains from the Celtic Tiger. They'll push hard their credo of further privatisation and the need for further tax reform, both in terms of developing tax credits and lower tax rates. And they'll be stressing the need to tackle the childcare issue and addressing the housing crisis. Tonight there'll be an address from Mary Harney at a conference dinner and tomorrow debate, workshops and a televised leadership address.
