Labour attacks 'TikTok Taoiseach' Simon Harris and calls for general election

Louth TD Ged Nash spoke ahead of the party's annual conference and said people are 'growing weary' of Fine Gael

Labour TD Ged Nash hit out at Fine Gael ahead of his party's annual conference. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Labour went on the attack against the Government and criticised Simon Harris as the “TikTok Taoiseach” as it holds its annual conference in Dublin on Saturday.

Louth TD Ged Nash said that Fine Gael was stagnating having been in Government for 13 years and its new leader-in-waiting had to bear some of the responsibility for that.

When asked if Mr Harris could rejuvenate Fine Gael, Mr Nash said: “He will be like the yappy dog chasing the car. If he caught the car, he wouldn’t know what to do with it.” 

The conference being held today at Dublin City University is focusing on housing, climate, and transport, which includes a motion calling on the Government to introduce a €9 monthly transport ticket to mitigate the impact of climate change and encourage public transport use.

Another motion up for debate called on the “Government to initiate a large-scale local authority house-building programme on council land, acknowledging the overdependence of this current Government on the private market to provide any housing solutions in this housing crisis”.

Mr Nash, the Labour Party’s finance spokesperson, said people are “growing weary” of Fine Gael after 13 years in Government.

“This Government seems to think the only metric that matters is economic success,” he said.

"You can’t eat good GDP figures. When they should be building 50,000 new homes a year, they’re only building 32,000. They refuse to revise those targets.

“We don’t believe the TikTok Taoiseach will transform anything. He will merely tinker around the edges. This Government do not believe in the capacity and importance of the State in that transformation.

Rather than change the faces at the top of Government, we need to change this Government. 

"Three Taoisigh in four years. Three into four does not go. We need to change this Government, and more importantly, the direction of this country.” 

Mr Nash said there was a “really impressive number of younger members and activists” who were attending today who had responded to the message that Labour had been putting forward.

“It’s been my experience that people are tired of this Government and especially tired of Fine Gael.

“Since 2016, they haven’t managed to turn Ireland’s economic success into the kind of social progress we see across the European Union in more social democratic countries. That is their failure. Simon Harris has to take his fair share of responsibility.” 

Ahead of the European and local elections, Mr Nash said his party was optimistic given the response while canvassing door-to-door.

“We’re in with a fighting chance of at least one, and we hope three, who will carry the Labour banner out to Europe,” he said.

On the similarity with the Social Democrats, he said they can complement each other but Labour’s job is to put forward its “unique” message to the electorate.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik will address the conference this evening.