The internal analysis in Labour is likely to continue for some time. Yesterday in Galway, many party members gathered for the annual Tom Johnson summer school. "Where Next?

Labour After the Election, " was the theme. Party president Michael D Higgins made a good stab at framing the context in which the party may respond over the five years ahead.

"Labour now needs to articulate an alternative vision to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, " Higgins argued in a clear signal that another Mullingar Accord arrangement with Enda Kenny is unlikely. He also sought to push the coalition issue beyond the parties that are involved in government. "Forming a government to implement our policies can be a greater responsibility than providing an electoral choice, " he said.

Interestingly, Higgins was far more positive about the Green Party than many on the opposition benches in recent weeks. "If one analyses the pattern of transfers from Green to Labour and from Labour to Green, such transfers are the overwhelming choice of the number one voters of each party, " he said. He also produced figures showing that while Labour received just over 10% of the national first preference vote, the party's candidates gathered 16% of all second preference votes.

The former minister used words rarely heard from politicians in recent times . . . socialism, ideology, vision and the elimination of poverty. But his message to his own party was blunt: it's time to change policy direction and be prepared . . . like the Greens . . . to deal with the devil if the right policy programme can be agreed. "We must above all else avoid becoming absorbed into an increasingly staid, predictable and conservative political landscape. Not for us participation in an ever more bland, stage-managed, massaged, cliched and focus-group derived barrage of platitudes.

Labour must show itself to be a realistic alternative to the politics of the stroke, of personal greed, of gombeenism, the degradation of the environment and the suppression of the imagination." The message was laced with the typical lyrical flourish associated with the Galway West politician, but for many in Labour the message was clear.