Labour in government forgot the working class and its vote collapsed

The party was seen as the protector of the working man and the ordinary people. They soon forgot their brief and the many promises made pre-election 2011.
To quote Mr. O’Donoghue: Labour sanctioned the infiltration of workers’ pay packets, pensions and social welfare payments. Some members of the Labour Party were trade union workers and officials who became TDs, but soon forgot the ordinary people they previously represented.
The most prominent of these former trade unionists were Eamon Gilmore and Pat Rabbitte: but these were just two of the many who were officials and executive members of the Irish Transport Union. I myself, as a delegate, attended many a union conference over the years, and heard Mr Gilmore and Mr Rabbitte speaking of the rights of workers.
But once they joined the inner political circle, they forgot us, and betrayed the working man and the people who supported them over the years.
This weekend, the Labour Party learnt a lesson the hard way. We had all warned them.