GILMORE CONFERENCE:LABOUR WAS giving no advice to its supporters on transfers to other parties in the Dublin Euro constituency, party leader Eamon Gilmore told a news conference yesterday.
He said he would not be taking the position of former taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald and former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox that Dublin voters should transfer to pro-Lisbon Treaty candidates, which was seen as an effort to boost the chances of Fianna Fáil’s Eoin Ryan against Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald.
“I’m leading a political party contesting the election and my message to Labour voters, people who are leaning towards the Labour Party is to give their first preference votes to the Labour Party, full stop,” Mr Gilmore said.
“The message is very simple: you give your number one vote to the Labour Party candidate.
“In the European election, and you referred specifically to Dublin, you give the number one preference to Proinsias De Rossa,” he said.
“And I’m saying this very deliberately: this idea that there are safe seats, that there are people home and dried because of the result of an opinion poll, the fieldwork for which was done, I don’t know, eight to 10 days ago, is just very dangerous territory. There is no safe seat in a three-seater.
“We are not getting into the business of down-the-line transfers,” said Mr Gilmore.