Angry hecklers hijack Labour launch
The party’s finance spokeswoman, Joan Burton, had detailed its manifesto for the city alongside the busy Millennium footbridge.
She used Tuesday’s jailing of lobbyist Frank Dunlop to point the finger at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for being part of bad planning decisions which had left a legacy residents across the city were left to live with.
However, passerby Madeleine Darlington said when the Labour Party had been in power it failed to fight for the poor and instead protected its own ministers.
Ms Burton said the heckling showed a vibrant city and revealed an electorate willing to engage with the politicians for this election.
Likewise Dublin south by-election candidate Alex White criticised the bad planning around the M50 ring but met with a similar response.
“There is very little planning for communities across that area and now you have deficits growing up in school provision, school places, a lack of places for sports and recreation for kids.
“I mean we have great organisation across the city like GAA, the GAA do fantastic work and other groups do as well. But for people not involved in those organisation there is an amazing lack of facilities,” he said.
He was interrupted.
“The GAA? The GAA? People are walking the streets of Dublin with nothing and you are talking about the GAA, you w**ker,” a man shouted at him.
Labour is hoping to have Ivana Bacik elected in the Dublin central by-election and have Mr White overtake Fine Gael’s George Lee in the Dublin south polls.
It is better placed in Dublin’s European election where Proinsias De Rossa is likely to retain his seat with Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell.
However, launching Fine Gael’s small enterprise policy Mr Mitchell’s director of elections, Leo Varadkar TD , said the frontrunner status was a worry.
He said this was because it focused attention on the battle for the third seat, between Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald and Fianna Fáil’s Eoin Ryan.
“We would have real concern that there is slippage in support for Gay Mitchell because of the fact that it’s become a contest really to get the last seat and that does create a challenge for us,” he said.
Yesterday, Sinn Féin launched a billboard in Dublin with Ms McDonald and party leader Gerry Adams.
It said that the swell of public opinion was moving away from the Government parties.
Fianna Fáil fears that Ms McDonald will retain her seat in the shrunken four-seater ahead of Mr Ryan and this has led it to direct most attacks in her direction.
Yesterday, Fianna Fáil TD Darragh O’Brien criticised her position on potentially running in the next general election.
“Her concern has always been to put national politics first, which is why she has tried to get into the Dáil in the last two elections and why she has often chosen to attend Sinn Féin photo-ops over European Parliamentary business,” he said.
