Hogan calls on Martin to withdraw ‘gerrymander’ claim

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has called on Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to withdraw an "outrageous" claim that Mr Hogan "gerrymandered" local election boundaries to benefit Fine Gael and Labour.

Mr Martin made the claim at his party’s ardfheis in Killarney this weekend, and said Mr Hogan micromanaged the changes in an “attempt to maximise Fine Gael and Labour seats in May”. Mr Martin’s spokesman accused Mr Hogan of “deliberately misinterpreting” the remarks.

In a statement, Mr Hogan said the process was managed by an independent committee and called Mr Martin’s comments ironic, coming from “the leader of the most corrupt party in the history of the State”.

“Deputy Martin should withdraw his comments and apologise to the independent committee who gave freely of their time in preparing the report,” Mr Hogan said. “I am well used to political footballs but this one is nasty and it is a slur on the integrity of the members of the committee. This is what gets politics a bad name.

“I defy Deputy Martin to demonstrate how this report favours Fine Gael and Labour. The people are not fools and they will see this for what it is – Fianna Fáil reverting to gutter politics, to which they are well accustomed.”

He also accused Mr Martin of “desperation in advance of the local elections” and said there hadn’t been a “peep” previously about the boundary report, even though it was published nine months ago.

Mr Martin’s spokesman said the Fianna Fáil leader was only talking about the terms of reference set down for the commission. He said Mr Hogan had “skewed the terms of reference”, adding: “The only person who mentioned the boundary commission was Phil Hogan.”