I am not sure who said ‘Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.’ For me a lot of positive things have come out of the experience of the past two weeks in Fine Gael. First was the well spring of goodwill and support that I received from all over the country. I would like to particularly thank Councillor Jim Allen, who set up a Facebook site in support and the 675 people who joined it. With so many people despairing that politics can change anything, this shows that there are still many people who believe politics can shape up and show that it is capable of a response that matches the scale of the crisis affecting so many lives.

I believe it was important that the question was put as to whether Fine Gael needed a change of leader in order to fulfil its potential. This opened the valve to a badly needed debate about what Fine Gael needs to do. We are developing coherent policies, but there is more to do. We must also promote them with conviction and persuade people that they can rely on Fine Gael to make our country secure again. We must lead political change so that, this time, we build an authentic Ireland, not the garish, glitzy display that often passed for success in the tiger years.

This process has initiated a genuine debate about change within Fine Gael. For a political party to succeed in the 21st century demands best practice in a huge number of facets of political work. These important issues have now been aired. Now a significant opportunity has now been opened up for Fine Gael to shape a much stronger image for the Party among the general public. To exploit this, the Party must be seen to utilise all its talent to best advantage regardless of which side they took in the recent debate. This will put new impetus into Fine Gael’s programme to change politics and to deliver a credible vision of an economy that has been reinvented and of a public service that is performing to the highest possible standards.

It is always tempting to look over at the Labour Party and assume that because they are doing so well out of a policy of protest without any strategy for renewal, that Fine Gael could do the same. Fine Gael will never be convincing as a party of protest. Fine Gael has always been at its best when it is arguing with conviction for a long-term vision and persuading people to join us on the journey to get there.

The Irish people have had to endure the horrendous consequences of appalling management of our economic affairs over the past seven years. It has had the same sort of impact as the death of someone close. There are distinct phases, moving from denial to anger, depression, bargaining and reconciliation. While people are in the anger and depression phase, they seek only outlets for their frustration and fury. However, that phase passes and they enter a more constructive phase when people will be searching for solutions that will work. At that point, it is vital that Fine Gael persuades people to give a new government a mandate that is real, not just populist, that sweeps away the corrosive political culture that has prevailed in this country for too long.

This is the time for honest debate in the country, just as it has been a time for honest debate within Fine Gael. The stakes are far too high to leave politics to the spinners of the media and the weavers of marketing slogans.

They say that winners write history. And perhaps this is true of the recent events in Fine Gael too. Many have written about ineptitude, ill-timing, elitism and raw ambition to describe what happened in Fine Gael in recent weeks. The truth is very different. Many people of real conviction on both sides argued passionately about the future of our Party. It is that passion which must now be harnessed into new purposefulness and direction.