Tánaiste trades blows in Dáil over Priory Hall and bin service issues

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore traded bitter blows with opponents after being accused of abandoning vulnerable families.

The Labour leader became embroiled in angry Dáil exchanges with Mary Lou McDonald and Joe Higgins over the plight of people made homeless by the Priory Hall evacuation, as well as the bin collection controversy in Dublin.

Mr Gilmore rounded on Ms McDonald, insisting the Priory Hall residents had been failed in the first instance by a “Sinn Féin developer”.

Ms McDonald hit back with a reference to his past involvement with the Workers’ Party: “It is a bit ironic that the man who lectures on respectability comes from an outfit that was very close to North Korea and was quite adept at running off dodgy fivers.”

The Priory Hall development has been empty since the High Court ruled it be evacuated on safety grounds last October.

Attention then switched to refuse collection probl-ems in Dublin, with the threat of losing bin services hanging over thousands of homes. Socialist TD Mr Higgins attacked the tánaiste’s attitude.

Up to 18,000 households face a loss of bin services as Greyhound Waste moves to demand fee payments.

Mr Higgins said Mr Gilmore “should feel ashamed, diminished and humiliated” at the handing over of the service to a private contractor.

Mr Gilmore said the Socialist TD’s previous campaigns against bin charges had made the council run service unviable.

Fianna Fáil deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív called on the Government to interv-ene. He said urgent action was needed to stop parts of the city becoming a “cesspool” of waste.

Mr Gilmore hit back, saying he would “take no lectures from a Fianna Fáil deputy campaigning against a “modest registration charge” for septic tanks.