Comment

Aidan Regan: Fine Gael’s centre-right politics is dead unless under-40s can own homes

Simon Harris leads a party that doesn’t know who it is for, and there is only one obvious solution to rebuild a centre-right voting bloc in Ireland

Simon Harris needs to build alliances across these different factions of the party. This is something that Leo Varadkar clearly couldn’t do. Picture: Andrew Downes

The fundamental problem facing Simon Harris is that Fine Gael don’t know who they are, or what they stand for. To some of their party faithful, particularly in rural Ireland, they are a conservative party. To their South Dublin and Wicklow voters, they are a liberal party. Whereas to some of their more intellectual-minded activists and ministers, they are a part of the Western European Christian democratic family.

This ability to be a catch-all party ...