Sherlock comment was reactionary, says Prendergast

MEP Phil Prendergast has denied that her call for Eamon Gilmore to resign as Labour leader was an "act of desperation" and described as "reactionary" a comment by her colleague Seán Sherlock that she can not be taken seriously as a candidate.

Ms Prendergast, who was on 4% in an opinion poll published last weekend on the Ireland South European Parliament constituency, said yesterday she was “not a bit concerned” about that poll or reports alleging that some Labour candidates have washed their hands of her.

Mr Sherlock also said the Labour MEP’s remarks on the party leadership were “ill-timed and silly”.

In response, she said: “Well I don’t agree with his comments about not being taken seriously as a candidate and I think it’s a comment that was taken out of context in terms of the general trail that I have been on since 77 days ago [when she started campaigning]. His comment is reactionary and it does not reflect on my campaign in any way that I would be worried about.”

Asked if her call on Mr Gilmore to resign was a sign of desperation, given her low standing in the opinion poll, she said: “Sometimes things need to be said, they need to fall not on deaf ears but they need to be heard.

“There’s no act of desperation. Three weeks out from an election, you do what needs to be said, you do what needs to be done and what I’ve been doing is out meeting people in the streets, in shopping centres, in towns, all around the constituency and I’ll continue to do that right up until and including polling day.”

Speaking in Clonmel, where she was a guest at the last meeting of South Tipperary County Council before its merger with North Tipperary, Ms Prendergast said she was not worried by reports that some Labour candidates will not handle her election literature because of her remarks.

There was a “Gilroy factor” involved, she said, referring to Cork-based senator John Gilroy, who was going to challenge her for the Labour nomination but withdrew from the race in February.

“I think this is a time when people play out old scores and settle new scores and do whatever they feel they want to do and that’s part and parcel of that,” she said. “I have a serious job to do, I’m doing a serious job already, I’ve done that for 20 years as a public representative.

“This is not a time for trivialising issues and it’s not a time either for trivialising the role that the Labour Party is playing in government and it’s not a time either for people having a reaction that is designed to undermine my candidacy.”