Gilmore fires back over slur on Childers

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore fired back at outgoing Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle yesterday after she questioned the credentials of one of his party’s European election candidates.

On Saturday, Ms Doyle accused Nessa Childers, the Labour candidate in Ireland East, of “political naivety”, saying she was a “Foxrock girl” being exploited by Mr Gilmore’s party because of her family’s political pedigree.

Ms Childers is the daughter of former president Erskine Childers.

“My problem is that I have no idea what her policies are,” Ms Doyle said of Ms Childers. “Her only platform appears to be that she was a Fianna Fáil president’s daughter. I think she’s a Foxrock girl who was a former Green Party councillor who is now on the Labour ticket in a different constituency where she doesn’t live.”

The criticism came after Ms Childers performed poorly in a radio debate with other candidates, admitting she knew little about agriculture, a significant issue in the east constituency.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny backed Ms Doyle’s criticism yesterday, saying: “She is speaking the truth in that the area... is by and large growing towns, but [also contains] a very strong element of the agricultural community.

“I must say that I was surprised that the candidate for the Labour Party was not in a position to make any comment about live exports, which are so important to the agri sector,” he added.

But Mr Gilmore claimed Ms Doyle’s attack was “way over the top”, and had only been made because Ms Childers is doing well in the polls, which give her a chance of winning a seat.

“I think that kind of negative campaigning has no place in Irish politics,” Mr Gilmore said. “I think that the attack that Avril Doyle made on her was a bit unworthy of Avril Doyle, to be honest.”

He struggled, however, when asked if Ms Childers’ lack of agricultural knowledge was damaging for a candidate, throwing the focus back on Ms Doyle’s attack.

“In the course of a political contest, it’s not unusual that you get candidates having, you know, having a thump at each other.”

In the debate on the KCLR radio station, which broadcasts to Kilkenny and Carlow, Ms Childers said she didn’t have “a huge knowledge” about agriculture.

When asked where she stood on the position of live cattle exports from Ireland, she replied: “I’m not quite sure what that question is about.”