THE Fine Gael faithful gathered at Citywest in Dublin this weekend were walking ground covered the previous week by their counterparts in Fianna Fail. The members of the two largest parties have, however, seen their importance significantly reduced in recent years.

Over the last decade, the main parties . . . and Fianna Fail, in particular . . . have taken this power away from their members. The complaints of Senator Liam Fitzgerald last week about the fact that there was no selection convention in Dublin North East are echoed elsewhere in Fianna Fail circles, although at least in that constituency the two selected candidates are outgoing TDs. In several constituencies for the forthcoming contest, the FF hierarchy has simply ignored its local members by imposing candidates on party tickets. In Galway West, FF HQ, in selecting Michael Crowe, bypassed a sitting senator and several local councillors. Crowe was elected at the 2004 local elections as an independent. There was some local fuss but eventually party HQ got its way. In Meath East, the choice of newcomer Thomas Byrne as Minister Mary Wallace's running mate was also taken by Fianna Fail centrally. The party also toyed with several potential candidates for Monaghan with an obvious message that anyone but a local councillor was the preference. In the end, FF HQ opted for Margaret Conlon, an electoral novice.

The test of this new policy will come on general election day. In an academic study of Fine Gael members in 2002, there was a strong preference for less central interference in candidate selection. There's little doubt FF members would share that opinion. But if the party's imposed candidates succeed at the ballot box, it will give licence to FF headquarters to ratchet up its involvement in future candidate selection, with more constituencies finding they have little say in the name of the person they will be asked to get elected. If it works for Fianna Fail, the other parties will also follow, and those party members who gather at conference venues like Citywest will increasingly see their role is confined to pushing leaflets through letterboxes.

Party political broadcast

RTE called the outcome of the general election last week with the station's latest publication, The Election Book, edited by Tom McGuire.

Alongside a series of articles by RTE presenters and reporters, the book contains a runthrough of all 43 Dail constituencies with predictions by Rachael English and Nicky Coffey.

There will be more than a few arguments with the assessments but the predictions do make for interesting comment.

According to RTE, the next Dail will break down as Fianna Fail with 70 seats, Fine Gael 43, Labour 24, the PDs 3, Greens 7, Sinn Fein 10 and others/independents 9. On those figures, the current government would not get a third term, Enda Kenny can go home to Castlebar and, more than likely, either Trevor Sargent (in a minority coalition) or Pat Rabbitte (with a change of mind) will be Tanaiste, with Bertie Ahern remaining as Taoiseach. The predictions give Sinn Fein all its target gains while the Greens only pick up a single new seat, which is probably too low given the party's consistently strong poll ratings.

The man who will take greatest issue with the RTE predictions will be Frank Flannery, Fine Gael's director of elections. Flannery has forecast a 30-seat gain for the party. Depending on the eventual outcome, he'll either be known as the Mystic Meg of Irish politics or, less flatteringly, the holder of the Harry Potter award for dubious electoral predictions.

Madam, Everyone logging into an ireland. com email account in recent weeks has been faced with an interesting positioning of ads on the interest service run by The Irish Times. "Election 2007 Ireland. Do you believe that we need change? Debate the issues facing us, " one advert asks alongside another proclaiming, "Charles Haughey dies. Haughey, godfather of the Provos, made modern Ireland in his image." Impartiality? Yours, etc Net gains target a broad farce SOME broadband confusion.

Communications minister Noel Dempsey, last weekend at the Fianna Fail ardfheis: "At the end of 2006, we had 510,000 subscribers. I have now set a target of 700,000 subscribers by the end of this year. That is real progress."

Then last Thursday, the European Commission published a report ranking Ireland 16th out of 25 EU states for subscription to high-speed internet services with broadband penetration at 10.3% compared to the EU average of 15.7%.

A case of baby steps forward.