Support for Catherine Connolly weaker among Labour Party members, admits Ivana Bacik
Several Labour Party sources told the 'Irish Examiner' that there was unhappiness amongst some in the party with Catherine Connolly’s performance during media interviews.
Just 58% of Labour Party members who took part in a survey wanted their party to back Catherine Connolly in the presidential election.
As Ivana Bacik denied that Alan Kelly’s public outburst against Ms Connolly’s candidacy undermined her leadership, she refused to confirm whether she threatened to pull the Labour Party think-in from his constituency if he did not row back on the comments. The party is meeting in Nenagh on Thursday and Friday.
The opening press conference was dominated by Mr Kelly’s interview on Tipp FM last week, during which he spoke against Ms Connolly’s presidential campaign.
He cited concerns about her views on foreign affairs, specifically mentioning her views on Syria, Russia, and the EU.
Mr Kelly told reporters that he wanted to address the “elephant in the room”, and defended both his position and the party’s right to support her campaign, adding that he “respects the democratic process”.
Ms Bacik said that, while 86% of the “decision-making body” decided to back Ms Connolly, the support among the membership was weaker.
“We had done a consultative survey with members, we had a very strong response rate,” she said.
“58% of those who responded asked us to back Catherine. 83% asked to get involved in the presidential election.
Ms Bacik and Mr Kelly both denied that his comments would “undermine” her leadership if Ms Connolly’s campaign is not successful.
“I don't want you or anyone else to think that in some way, that this festers into some other agenda or anything like that,” Mr Kelly said.
Ms Bacik also refused multiple times to confirm whether she had considered pulling the think-in out of Tipperary if Mr Kelly did not express regrets over his comments in what was described as a “frank” conversation about the incident.
“I'm certainly not going to go into what I discussed with Alan,” she said.
“All I’m going to say is that I really welcomed Alan's expression, his communication, his expression of regret after the interview, and we move on.”
Ms Bacik also declined to answer whether Ms Connolly should apologise for offering to nominate Gemma O’Doherty in the 2018 election.
Mr Kelly said part of his decision not to back Ms Connolly was due to his relationship with CervicalCheck campaigner Vicky Phelan and Ms O’Doherty’s comments about the HPV vaccine.
Several Labour Party sources told the that there was unhappiness amongst some in the party with Ms Connolly’s performance during media interviews.
It is understood there is particular concern about how she answered questions during an interview on RTÉ’s last weekend, with one noting it had “damaged her”.
However, Ms Bacik insisted she is satisfied with Ms Connolly’s media performances so far, noting that she had faced “robust” questioning “robustly”.
The Labour leader also criticised Sinn Féin, and accused it of “dithering” and “sitting on the sidelines” of the presidential election campaign, noting that its decision on how to approach the election will only be taken on September 20 — four days before the nomination closing date.
She also called on the Government to stop “fighting” and resolve the issues causing a strike by school secretaries and caretakers.
