Stephen Bourke

Marking an end to the woke era in Fine Gael should mean clearly separating what stays and what goes. I can't speak for everyone who supports the center-right motion, but you won't find many FG members nowadays who don't agree it was right to pass: ✅ The gay marriage referendum ✅ Repeal the 8th There is also progress that FG members see in the right direction: ✅ Asylum numbers and accommodation costs falling ✅ Full employment ✅ Growing capital spending ✅ Income Tax bands moving higher ✅ Personal Investment Accounts The "centre" in "centre-right" means a party still open to ideas that reach the centre of Irish politics from either side. Raising the minimum wage is a traditionally left idea, but we have done it countless times. It becomes even more essential in an era of inflation, so the lowest paid workers aren't left behind. The "progressive centre" era has too many hallmarks I want left behind. Again, I can't claim all supporters of the motion agree, but I offer them as my own: ❌ Growing real current spending at unsustainable rates ❌ Family and Care referendums ❌ Hate speech bill ❌ Non-EU workers now accounting for the majority of job additions ❌ Gender quotas in all areas of life ❌ Transgender rights to the detriment of biological sex ❌ Siding with Gaza flotillas ("act of courage") and the Ulm 5 ❌ The 3-day wait, safe access zones and surrogacy ❌ Don't hug your granny and the "tradwives" campaign to come in 2027 The centre-right motion is about where the party goes from here. It's about seeing more fruitful and sensible ideas from the right of politics, with its focus on preserving institutions and ideas that have stood the test of time. A revival of Christian Democratic thinking should mean FG reviving its core principles: 👩‍👩‍👧‍👦 The family and communities as a core unit of society 💪 Personal responsibility ⤵️ Subsidiarity - Placing a renewed focus on political decisions taking place as local as is possible and practical. A credible plan for a United Ireland must consider decentralisation. 💼 Enterprise as the engine of all shared wealth. This is something Fine Gael already does well but must not be overlooked either. Gay Mitchell, former MEP for Dublin, said it best in my earliest days of canvassing for the party. He believed in "rights, responsibilities, social justice and enterprise". A strong centre-right is needed to push back far-right movements that are gaining pace elsewhere in Europe. It's about an injection of common sense into how the party formulates policy going forward.

‘Second-rate artists and mediocrities can take a stand. Real artists don’t take a stand on anything’ — John Banville buff.ly/HSmql5q

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that Ryan Tubridy would be 'very welcome' to enter the world of politics, after the former Late Late Show host joked that he goes to bed "dreaming some day" he will reclaim his grandfather's seat in Galway West. thejournal.ie/ryan-tubridy-p…