Ahern accused of Hobbs dirty tricks campaign

FINE GAEL last night accused Taoiseach Bertie Ahern of ordering a dirty tricks campaign to try and destroy the credibility of consumer rights champion Eddie Hobbs.

Mr Ahern has unleashed an army of publicly funded spindoctors to smear the Rip-Off Republic presenter with an “avalanche of bad publicity”, the opposition claimed.

Dublin MEP and TD Gay Mitchell compared the onslaught to the activities of Haiti’s ex-dictator ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, famous for using his Tonton Macoutes militia on opponents.

“The problem is that they have been in Government for far too long and have started to believe their own rhetoric and see any attack on them as an attack on the State itself,” Mr Mitchell said. “They are behaving like Papa Doc Duvalier. They don’t want any criticism at all.

“Bertie is too slick to put his own fingerprints on this, but the Government has 76 spindoctors funded by the taxpayer to do its bidding.”

Fianna Fáil has been thrown onto the defensive by the ratings success of Mr Hobbs’ ‘Rip Off Republic’ series which has attracted more than 800,000 viewers and seems to have caught a national mood of dissatisfaction with the cost of living.

Mr Hobbs has been hit by a wave of hostile media reports in the past two weeks questioning his judgment, business career and the authenticity of his “rip off” assertions.

“Rather than trying to solve the problems raised by Eddie Hobbs, it seems they have been working overtime to target Eddie Hobbs himself.

“They seem to think that if they destroy Mr Hobbs, then the problem will go magically away. It seems an orchestrated campaign has been launched against Eddie Hobbs.

“They are spinning news stories against him, rather than using their energies to tell us how Government ministers are addressing the issues of Rip-Off Ireland,” the Fine Gael TD added.

Mr Mitchell insisted Fianna Fáil had a track record of attacking the RTÉ messenger rather than dealing with problems brought to light by the broadcaster.

“Some years ago, when RTÉ’s Seven Days - the fore-runner of Prime Time - broadcast an investigation into money lending, the then Fianna Fáil Government announced an inquiry into the programme itself instead of into the money-lending issues raised. The leopard has not changed its spots,” Mr Mitchell added.

Mr Ahern was personally blamed for directing the campaign.

“I don’t think anything happens in this Government without the say so of Bertie Ahern,” said a Fine Gael spokesman.

Fianna Fáil said they were bemused by the allegations. “I really have no idea what they are talking about,” said an FF spokeswoman.