Fianna Fáil's European Election candidates deny tension amid dividing of constituency

Fianna Fáil's two candidates in Ireland South deny that the party's decision to divide the constituency has caused tension between them.

Billy Kelleher and Malcolm Byrne, speaking at the party's manifesto launch for the European Elections on May 24, insist that the vote management strategy is being done to maximise the party's chances of winning two seats.

At the launch, party leader Micheál Martin said his party is aiming to win at least three of the 13 seats up for grabs on election day.

The party is running five candidates in the three constituencies – Mr Kelleher and Mr Byrne in Ireland South, Barry Andrews in Dublin and Anne Rabbitte and Brendan Smith in Midlands/Northwest.

Mr Martin and the candidates emphasised that, if elected, they would vow to stand up and defend European values in the face of rising Euroscepticism and political extremism.

Mr Martin said he believes these are critical elections for the future of the European Union.

Others are seeking to undermine the union and are continuing to spread conspiracy theories about EU militarisation.

In his most pointed comments, Mr Martin criticised Fine Gael's association with the European People's Party (EPP) which he said has “been soft” on Viktor Orban's authoritarian administration in Hungary.

With a number of TDs standing for election to the EU Parliament, the likelihood of a number of by-elections in November arises, but Mr Martin insisted there is no immediate threat to the stability of the Government in terms of Dáil numbers.

“I love elections,” he said.

Mr Martin said he is “surprised” by Leo Varadkar regarding the situation at the morgue at Waterford Hospital because “he was essentially undermining the contributions that the doctors made".

Billy Kelleher.

I think there’s a tendency to try to undermine people within our health system who try to raise serious issues, which I worry about. It’s not just on this issue, it’s on other issues.

"There’s a certain culture of fear within our health system to speak out for fear that the system will be down on top of you very quickly and that’s something I don’t like.

"There are clearly issues with that mortuary in Waterford University Hospital, there’s no point trying to undermine the people articulating the issues on that, there’s ongoing correspondence on the issue," he said.

Mr Kelleher told reporters that the European elections and local elections running concurrently means that there’s a “difficulty in getting a strong debate” on issues in the EU and Europe, which Rabbitte agreed with strongly.