Race for the Áras heats up with just days to go before polling
Independent Galway West TD and presidential election candidate Catherine Connolly meeting people in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, during a canvass on Saturday. Picture: Eamon Ward
The heat has been turned up in the presidential election, with attacks becoming increasingly more personal with just days to go before polling.
Under pressure to bridge a widening gap in the opinion polls, Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys accused her opponent, Independent TD Catherine Connolly, of “making money out of people’s misfortunes” as she continued to question her role as a barrister working on behalf of banks.
Ms Connolly fired back at the allegations, saying Ms Humphreys’s campaign had “reached a new low".
In a weekend interview, Ms Humphreys said she tried to “keep people in their houses”, and that was the “difference” between her and Ms Connolly, referring to the Galway TD’s work as a barrister, whose clients included banks looking to repossess homes.
Believing such an angle is one of the last ploys that could revive Ms Humphreys’s flagging fortunes, senior Fine Gael figures bolstered the attacks, with deputy leader Helen McEntee accusing Ms Connolly of “hypocrisy”.
While Ms Connolly has acknowledged she represented banks as a barrister, she has not confirmed if it involved repossessions.
She has also argued that the “cab-rank rule” means that barristers cannot turn down work.
In Galway on Sunday, Ms Connolly lambasted the remarks from Fine Gael, claiming she had “addressed this over and over” in relation to bank repossessions. However, she previously declined to give a yes or no answer to such questions.
“The campaign has reached a new low from Fine Gael,” she said.
Ms Humphreys is 18 points behind in the latest opinion polls between the two remaining candidates, with Fianna Fáil’s campaign imploding when its candidate Jim Gavin dropped out over a failure to repay a tenant rent overpayments worth €3,300 in 2008.
With the former Dublin football manager gone from the race, Ms Connolly has since cemented her position as favourite, racing ahead in the race to succeed President Michael D Higgins.
The signs that she would ramp up the attacks emerged on Friday when Ms Humphreys accused Ms Connolly of using anti-European language akin to Nigel Farage — the controversial leader of Britain’s Reform Party — who was instrumental in the Brexit campaign, and whose right-wing party is on course to win the next British general election.
The weekend attacks by Fine Gael intensified on Sunday, as Ms McEntee referenced several speeches Ms Connolly had given in the Dáil criticising banks’ behaviour and repossessions. She said:
“She built a political career denouncing what she delivered in her legal career.
“Catherine Connolly had no problem taking work from banks. And then goes into the Dáil to castigate the banks’ criminal behaviour, which cost people their homes, health, and their lives. This type of hypocrisy is extraordinary, particularly from someone seeking to be president.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin joined in the attacks on Ms Connolly, claiming she is in the "anti-EU camp".
However, Mr Martin has insisted he will not be directing his party to support the Fine Gael candidate, despite increasing hope in Fine Gael that more Fianna Fáil members will get behind Ms Humphreys.
Mr Martin was criticised over Fianna Fáil’s chaotic campaign, with Billy Kelleher, the man beaten to the nomination by Mr Gavin, saying it was “catastrophic” the party’s vote has dropped in opinion polls by 10 points.
The Taoiseach also dodged a question about whether he would join Ms Humphreys on the campaign trail.
However, senior Fine Gael sources told the Irish Examiner last night that they would not rule it out.
The final debate of the campaign will be held on Tuesday, as Ms Humphreys and Ms Connolly go head-to-head on RTÉ’s .
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