FG and Labour claim transfer pact success

FINE GAEL and Labour yesterday maintained that the so-called Mullingar Pact between the two parties was working well despite claims by Fianna Fáil that it had failed in the Meath and Kildare by-elections.

Both Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and the Labour Party’s Eamon Gilmore yesterday maintained the vote transfer agreement between both parties had been successful.

Mr Kenny said that his party’s successful candidate in Meath, Gerry McEntee, had benefited from between 65-70% in transfers from Labour candidate Dominic Hannigan.

He said the 40% transfer rate from Labour’s Paddy McNamara to Fine Gael’s Darren Scully in North Kildare was explicable by the fact that by-election winner, Independent Catherine Murphy, was a former member of the Labour Party.

It was not surprising, he said, that she would benefit from transfers from Mr McNamara.

If Mr Scully had been eliminated before Mr McNamara, he said, he would have transferred upwards of 60% of his next preferences to the Labour candidate.

“This is the first time that we had a formal pact for a vote transfer,” Mr Kenny said, speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme yesterday.

“When people begin to understand the power and influence of transferring a vote for the purpose of change, they will understand the difference it will make when it comes to changing a Government.”

The views were echoed by Labour’s Eamon Gilmore who said that both parties would continue to work to build an alternative to the Government and offer voters a clear choice.

Both were responding to Fianna Fáil minister Noel Dempsey, who asserted yesterday that there was “no great evidence of a transfer from Labour to FG or vice versa in Kildare”.

“Certainly I would say that there was a FG to Labour element but not that much of a sign of it from Labour to FG,” he said.

He implied that, in the light of the election, Mr Rabbitte would have difficulty selling the Mullingar Accord to delegates at the party’s national convention in May.

However, the Labour Party spokesperson rejected the contention.

“The pact relates to a change of government, and that did not arise in either by-election,” he said.

Fianna Fáil saw its support levels drop by 12% in Meath and 18% in Kildare North compared to 2002.

Fine Gael became the largest party in Meath, overtaking FF for the first time since 1927, while Ms Murphy garnered a quarter of all first preferences in Kildare.

Meanwhile, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent yesterday said for the first time that he would not be prepared to serve in a Government with Fianna Fáil.

He said that while the party has made no decision on future coalition arrangements, he would not be personally willing to become a minister in any coalition with Fianna Fáil.