Gilmore in leadership race

EAMON GILMORE entered the Labour leadership race yesterday by declaring he wants to be the first Labour Taoiseach.

The Dun Laoghaire TD said he wanted to haul Labour out of the third place in Irish politics to make it the main alternative to Fianna Fáil.

"I think for a leader of the Labour Party to aspire to anything less is to consign Labour to the status of the permanently also-ran," Deputy Gilmore said. Asked how he intended to do this when Dick Spring, who was the most successful Labour leader to date, failed, Deputy Gilmore said: "When Labour is confident about itself and Labour puts forward a confident message, the people will respond

Deputy Gilmore said people needed a national party to challenge Fianna Fáil and to oppose the deceitful performance of this Government, which lied its way back into office. Asked how Labour can take on Fianna Fáil when it has never succeeded in getting more than 33 seats, Deputy Gilmore replied: "Every other Labour party in Europe has gone through lows and managed to make a breakthrough I believe the time is now right for the Irish Labour Party to make that breakthrough."

Deputy Gilmore said the vast majority of people shared the Labour Party values of equality, inclusiveness and solidarity.

But the party now also needed to build the organisation up from the ground by motivating its membership and inspiring new people to join, he added. And Labour needed to engage with people on the ground and help people in housing estates solve the rising anti-social problems and take a new approach to tackling poverty, Deputy Gilmore said.

He is the fourth candidate to enter the Labour leadership race and will be up against strong competition from his former Democratic Left colleague, Pat Rabbitte; Brendan Howlin and Róisín Shortall for the votes of Labour's 3,500 members.