The tent at the Galway Races has become, in perception terms, almost as big a liability as Taca, the party's controversial fundraising club for businessmen in the 1960s.

And for what? The tent is believed to net the party in the region of 170,000 . . . decent money, but when you think it takes 4m to run a general election campaign, relatively small beer. And whatever the party brings in cash terms, it is more, much more, than offset by the negative publicity. By any basic cost-benefit analysis, the tent simply isn't worth it.

Fianna Fail claims that the negative image of the tent is totally unfair. It is absolutely right. Fine Gael hosted a tent at Punchestown and nobody accuses that party on a daily basis of cavorting with builders. The legends about what goes on at the tent at Galway are also wildly exaggerated. Bertie Ahern probably overegged the pudding with his "there are hard-working tradesmen and clerical workers in there" line last year, but the reality is, the tent is basically a Fianna Fail social, which by the end of the day descends into something of a free-for-all.

It is also highly transparent as the media are also given access to the tent.

In a country where the taoiseach of the day still holds constituency clinics and goes canvassing door-to-door on a weekly basis, the notion that the Galway Races offers special access to the cabinet is pretty far-fetched. For better or worse, Irish politicians, including the holders of the top jobs, are probably more accessible than in any other country in Europe. You don't need to be in the tent at Galway to make your point to them.

But whether or not the criticism of the tent is fair or not is completely irrelevant.

Fairness rarely comes into politics. Is it fair that the minister for justice gets blamed because there is an increase in gang related murders? Is it fair that the PDs got stuffed in the 1997 general election for making a moderate proposal on single mothers that had previously been raised by a number of left-wing figures? Is it fair that Alan Dukes, one of the best politicians the state has produced, lost his seat in 2002? Is it fair that Albert Reynolds lost power over a crisis that was hyped out of proportion and which virtually nobody can remember?

Of course it isn't, but, as Reynolds would no doubt testify from that experience in 1994, perception, not fairness, is everything in politics. And the perception is that Fianna Fail scratches the backs of those in the building sector and the builders return the favour at the Galway Races . . . a cosy club where everyone is a winner.

Trevor Sargent was only too happy to pick up on this theme during the week with an attack in the Dail. "According to today's newspapers, while our earning power is up, a fifth of the population face a poverty trap. The earning power of some of the supporters of Fianna Fail is extraordinary. What message does it send to people who ask how they are expected to afford a basic house in the Ireland of 2006 when they see Mick and Tom Bailey paying 25m to the Revenue Commissioners, which is effectively a fine, yet the Taoiseach welcomes them to the Fianna Fail tent in the Galway Races?" the Green Party leader asked during leaders' questions. Bovale's record settlement with the Revenue Commissioners has nothing to do with Fianna Fail, yet the party was repeatedly associated with the company last week, and that is mainly down to the Bailey brothers' appearances at the tent in Galway.

The tent is used to take a swipe at the government on a wide range of issues, regardless of how tenuous the connection. Last November, Sargent's colleague Ciaran Cuffe told the Dail that "childcare is grand for those who have the time and resources to head off into the tent at the Galway Races, but a lone parent trying to raise children is stuck in a poverty trap from which there is no way out".

In a debate on housing, Fine Gael's Bernard Durkan told TDs that while tens of thousands of houses are being built each year, "some of these houses are penthouses. Some are worth 2m or 3m and some of those who live in them frequent the tent at Ballybrit races regularly. The more houses that are built, the more space that must be made in the tent to accommodate the investors and landlords who have bought themf Almost 400m is being paid in rent subsidies every year to people who frequent the tent in Ballybrit because the local authorities have not been able to build houses."

And in the Seanad, Fine Gael's John Paul Phelan accused Fianna Fail of being "the party of the tent at the Galway Races and of big business".

Brian Cowen, who was in the Seanad for the debate, responded that this "is a caricature". Undoubtedly; but it is a damaging caricature and one that Fianna Fail has the ability to shatter by simply depitching its tent at Ballybrit.