A senior Fine Gael TD has called on the incoming party leader Simon Harris to abandon the Government's hate speech legislation, ditch plans for the late night sale of alcohol and move Fine Gael away from "left wing" policies.
Michael Ring, a former minister, said Fine Gael has been "too left for too long" and warned the incoming party leader that he will pay a big price at the next election unless he returns the party to traditional values.
He told RTÉ's This Week programme that Mr Harris has a "very difficult job ahead" and should "do what Enda Kenny did" and travel around the country to talk to the organisation's grassroots.
He said Fine Gael had to return to its core values.
"We are not a left wing party, we are a centre party and Fine Gael has to move back into the centre again, and more to the right.
"We need to go back to core issues, law and order, we need to be doing more on law and order," he said.
"We need to go back to small businesses and farmers and we need to forget about a lot of these social issues we have been raising over the last few years that have been annoying people and upsetting people."
Mr Ring said the Government should abandon plans to extend the hours during which alcohol could be sold, and ditch the Government's legislation on hate speech.
"I want the hate bill gone, and I want to get rid of that daft idea of opening pubs all night. I will be stronger this time and I won't be allowing Fine Gael to go into these kinds of social issues that people don't want," he said.
"We need to win back the core support that we have lost. We need to stay with our values, and get away from the left."
He said Mr Harris would "pay a big price" if he does not return the party to core values.
"Our core values are not abortion, our core values are not to open pubs all night, our core values are not about hate speech.
"Our core values are to support small businesses which are in difficulty now, our core values are to get the public services that they need, to build houses and look after people in this country," Mr Ring said.
"Simon Harris has an opportunity now, and if he doesn't take that opportunity Fine Gael and Simon Harris will pay a big price over the next couple of months if we don't move back into the role that we always held."
Mr Ring also said immigration policy was a problem for the party.
"It is a big issue that hurt us very much in the recent referendum, and is hurting us on the ground. You cannot bring in 120,000 people and not have housing for them.
"People cannot get rented accommodation, people can't buy their own homes. We need more social housing," he said.
