Labour mayor quits over party’s ‘austerity agenda’
Thirty-one-year old Dermot Looney, who was only elected mayor last June, delivered a stinging attack on the party and its leader Eamon Gilmore claiming it had abandoned the most basic of social democratic concerns in government.
“Labour has kowtowed to Fine Gael’s economic agenda, presided over cuts across the public sector which worst affect those who are vulnerable, and implemented a series of demonstrably regressive budgets,” said the Tallaght primary school teacher who took a €7,000 pay cut of his €45,000 allowance and diverted it to the mayor’s fund when he took up the post.
