Burton: ‘Labour will go into election as independent party’

Labour will contest the looming general election as an independent party, not on a joint platform with Fine Gael, Tánaiste Joan Burton has signalled.

However, she said the campaign would highlight shared achievements.

Labour would present its own case for re-election, the Tánaiste said, when asked if a pre-poll deal with coalition partner Fine Gael was on the cards.

“But like Fine Gael we will be bringing our record in government to the Irish people and we will be asking the Irish people to make a judgement on what kind of a government they want and how much greater recovery they want,” Ms Burton said.

“I think the Government and both parties in it have achievements that we will want to bring to the people that we’ve worked on collectively but the Labour Party will be going into the election as an independent party.”

Labour is still badly stung by memories of the 2007 general election when its much vaunted “Mullingar Accord” joint platform with Fine Gael was considered a flop which heavily favoured Enda Kenny’s party.

However, Labour has been spooked by a spate of opinion polls putting its support at between 6% and 9% ahead of the next Dáil election which must be held by the spring of next year.

Asked if she thought Labour’s poll ratings would be better if Eamon Gilmore was still leader, Ms Burton said: “I never thought it was going to be a bed of roses”, after being elected to replace her predecessor following the party’s collapse at the European and local polls last May.

The Tánaiste strongly defended JobBridge as she questioned whether critics of the scheme in the Dáil had ever worked outside politics.

Referring to recent comments about what Sinn Féin’s leader Gerry Adams likes to do in his spare time, Ms Burton said he had tabled a number of questions “on his day off from his trampoline” asking for the initiative to be extended.

“I hear people in the Dáil talking about JobBridge and I sometimes wonder have some of them ever worked in a job, other than politics, of course.

“I recall Gerry Adams having parliamentary questions down, on his day off from his trampoline, actually looking for the scheme to be extended,” Ms Burton said.