Attack on Gormley - Pathetic hypocrisy

THE Irish-American politician the late Tip O’Neill said that all politics are local.

However, that does not mean that they have to be pathetically small town.

In a cringe-worthy display of petulance and hypocrisy former Labour deputy John Mulvihill launched a fairground attack on Environment Minister John Gormley in Cobh yesterday. The public meeting was called by Mr Gormley — against the wishes of his advisors — to discuss how plans to clean up the Irish Steel plant were progressing. Many of his predecessors — or indeed his colleagues — would not have so exposed themselves.

John Gormley has been environment minister for 16 months and has taken considerable criticism on this issue even though what went on at Haulbowline happened many years before he came to office.

The same cannot be said of John Mulvihill. He is a former Irish Steel employee and it is difficult to believe that he did not have some idea of what was going on at the mill all those years ago. Not only that but his party, the Labour Party, were in power when the Government sold the mill for £1 in September 1995. Were they not aware of the mess they were passing on?

Mr Mulvihill’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach do him or local politics no credit. In reality they are the kind of buffoonery that discredit local democracy. Not only that they will discourage other ministers who might wish to be as open as Mr Gormley from doing so.