TD tells parents: I won’t help you as you didn’t vote for me

FRUSTRATED parents fighting to get their children out of prefab classrooms have been told by their local Fianna Fáil TD they do not have his support because they did not vote for him.

Aggrieved Cork East deputy Ned O’Keeffe said he never felt welcome in the parish of Rathcormac and he preferred to help his own supporters.

“[If they] want me to support them, they should support me,” he said.

He was speaking to the parents’ council for Scoil Bhride in Rathcormac where there is a campaign for permanent rooms to replace prefabricated cabins.

But he told Cork’s C103 radio if Rathcormac wanted to rise up the pecking order it should reconsider its voting allegiance.

“I’ll prioritise, as a politician, my own area and the areas I think are right and are necessary and where I get my support from. Because I won’t be in Dáil Eireann if I don’t get that support.

“... I have to look at my situation and I will not be in Dáil Eireann representing my political party if I don’t get support and I would be very far down the list if I were to depend on Rathcormac,” he said.

Parents’ council chairperson Claire O’Flynn said this attitude was not acceptable and Mr O’Keeffe was just smarting because last month’s county council result was not to his liking.

“I am sorry he is a Fianna Fáil representative up here. Years ago he got his votes here in Rathcormac.

“Just because this time around in the local elections he didn’t get the votes because we had a local man running, the local people are going to support the local man. What is wrong with him?” she said.

On the same radio show Fine Gael TD for the area David Stanton said the parochial nature of Mr O’Keeffe’s politicking was at odds with his own.

“I am elected to support everybody and that is what I do.

“I can only speak for what I do and if somebody comes to me and they want assistance, advice or help or they want to advise me about their point of view I will engage with them and listen to them,” he said.