ECONOMIC RECOVERY would begin with a change of Government, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said at the launch of his party’s local election campaign yesterday.
“Fianna Fáil have ruined this country. They have dug a very big economic hole for us. The difficulty we’re in is as a result of the mismanagement of the economy by Fianna Fáil over the past decade.
“The present Taoiseach played a big part in that, because he was minister for finance for four years and Taoiseach for the past year,” he told a news conference in Dublin.
Mr Gilmore confirmed that Frank McBrearty jnr – whose family were victims of Garda harassment subsequently investigated by the Morris tribunal – would be a Labour candidate for Donegal County Council in the Stranorlar electoral area.
Asked how he rated Mr McBrearty’s chances of election, he replied: “All of our candidates are standing to win.”
He said the party would be selecting its candidate for the Dáil byelection in Dublin Central “very soon”.
In the 2004 local elections (county councils and city councils), Labour won 101 seats, an increase of 18 on the 83 won in 1999.
The party has selected 206 candidates for city and county councils to date and says that a small additional number will be selected in the next week.
Labour has 147 candidates contesting seats for town councils (some of whom are also included in the figure for city and county councils as they will be standing for both).
There are 79 town councils, including borough councils. Labour has seats on 46 of these and in June will be contesting seats in 70.
The party’s local election candidates range from Cllr Jane Dillon Byrne in Dún Laoghaire, who was first elected in 1965, to her running mate, 24-year-old Stephen Fitzpatrick.
Labour is also running a number of immigrant candidates. These hopefuls include Elena Secas in Castleconnell, Co Limerick, and returned emigrants like Margaret Guijt Lawlor who, having lived in the Netherlands for 20 years, has returned to live with her family in Emo and is standing for Laois County Council.
In Limerick former Irish rugby international Gerry McLoughlin, who won 18 caps, will now line out for Labour.
Michael Conway, who plays senior hurling for Kerry, is a Labour candidate in the Listowel electoral area.
Cllr Aoife Breslin, granddaughter of trade union activist Jim Larkin, is a candidate for Athy Town Council.
Deputy leader Joan Burton, the party’s director of elections, told the news conference that Labour was, “feeling upbeat and fairly confident, insofar as you can, about six weeks out”.
She said she was encouraged by “the response to our candidates and the things they stand for in terms of community, proper planning and development and what makes communities, rather than just councils run for the benefit of developers and bankers.
“So we are feeling hopeful. We have a message to give to people, people are listening to what the Labour Party has to say, they are looking at and thinking about voting for the Labour Party. Our candidates are putting in every effort to change that thinking about voting Labour, to actually voting Labour,” Ms Burton said.