Under Kenny the Fine Gael Party agreed to enter a pre-election pact with the Labour Party in order to offer the electorate an alternative coalition government at the 2007 general election held on 24 May. The so-called ‘Mullingar Accord’ was agreed in September 2004 following the European and Local elections that year. The Green Party also signalled via the media to be in favour of membership of such a coalition government after the election. They refused to commit to an agreement prior to polling day however.
Enda Kenny’s leadership has attempted to define Fine Gael as a party of the progressive centre. Its policy initiatives have concentrated on value for money, consumer rights, civil partnerships, reform of public spending, reward and enterprise and preventative health care policy. The party has sought to retake its former mantle as the law-and-order party committed to defending the institutions of the state. At the Fine Gael Ardfheis in March 2007 Kenny outlined his platform for the forthcoming general election entitled the ‘Contract for a Better Ireland’. ’The main aspects of this ‘contract’ included: 2,300 more hospital beds, 2,000 more Gardaí, tougher jail sentences and tougher bail for criminals, free health insurance for all children under 16 and lower income tax.
Bertie Ahern was perceived by many to have comfortably beaten Kenny in the pre-election Leaders’ debate.
When the votes were counted it emerged that Fine Gael had made large gains, increasing its number of seats by twenty to give a total of 51 seats in the new Dáil. But Kenny’s so-called ‘Alliance for Change’ did not have enough seats to form a majority in the new Dáil, as neither the Labour Party nor the Greens made gains. Despite predictions to the contrary, the Fianna Fáil vote recovered sufficiently to bring it to 78 seats, and a return to government for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Kenny is currently the longest-serving TD in Dáil Éireann still in office, and is the incumbent Father of the Dáil.
