Keaveney hits back at attempts to oust him

Labour Party chairman Colm Keaveney has hit back at attempts by the party leadership to oust him from his position, following his vote against the budget, saying he will not engage in their “silly games”.

“The rhetoric, and the scale of the venom that is being used against me, is an attempt to badger-bait me into a public fight to distract from the real issue — that they have been complicit in breaking promises to the Irish people.

“I have been somebody that carried more weight than many other government TDs, in previously defending unpopular measures, and it’s amazing to see how quickly they have turned against me,” he said.

Mr Keaveney said Environment Minister Pat Rabbitte had resorted to “odious and offensive” totalitarian language in his attacks against him.

“He used the language of warfare, saying government TDs are like troopers, which only goes to show that ministers are living in a bubble and are completely divorced from the struggles of ordinary people because, in reality, it is the people who are the troopers in all of this.

“I will not engage with this kind of cult, or consensus-based, politics which has put forward a crisis in the Labour Party vis-à-vis its credibility,” he said.

The rebel TD said an “insane situation” had now developed in which, he feels, the party will have its legal team attempt to find some loophole in its constitution which will facilitate his removal as chairman.

He said the early suspension of a meeting of the party’s executive board that he chaired on Wednesday, after Eamon Gilmore dubbed him an “opposition TD”, was evidence of this.

While Mr Gilmore has said Mr Keaveney’s position as chairman, now that he is outside the parliamentary party, is untenable, the Galway East TD said the last chairman, former Waterford TD Brian O’Shea, was not a member of the parliamentary party either.

“Eamon Gilmore never wanted me as chairman and I have already put up with a lot — unacceptable treatment, interference in my constituency and the placing of stories about my family in the media.

“This is a David and Goliath situation but I am determined to remain in my role,” he vowed.

The rebel TD pointed out that the party had “not turned on” Willie Penrose after he voted against the Government and said, while he has had to move offices away from other Labour Party Oireachtas members, Mr Penrose was allowed remain in-situ and continues to avail of the party’s administrative facilities.

A defiant Mr Keaveney said recent opinion polling had revealed that the people now see Labour as “Fine Gael Lite” because senior parliamentary party members had broken pre-election commitments.

“The more they put in front of me, the more they instigate unfair and undemocratic practices, the more determined I become,” he said.