LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore yesterday predicted that Fianna Fáil’s decision to replace Brian Cowen with Micheál Martin would not have any major impact with voters, who would still hold the senior Government party responsible for the state of the country.
Mr Gilmore said he had congratulated Mr Martin on his election as Fianna Fáil leader and wished him well in rebuilding Fianna Fáil, but he believed that such rebuilding should be done in opposition and he believed the electorate shared that view.
“I’ve been interested in some of the things that Micheál Martin has been saying since his election as leader, and it’s been like an attempt to get a general absolution for the failures of Fianna Fáil for the last 13 or 14 years.
“Micheál Martin, like every other Minister that sat around that Cabinet table, was a party to the decisions that landed this country in the mess it is now in. They were all there when they decided to provide a blanket bailout to the banks and the other disastrous policies.
“And it’s now resulted in working people in this country looking at their pay packets and seeing a big hole in them, and that hole was due to the decisions that Fianna Fáil made, and every Minister who participated in that decision has to bear responsibility for it.”
Mr Gilmore said that since Mr Martin was selected by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern to be on the Fianna Fáil front bench and later to serve in Cabinet, he had been a key figure in successive Fianna Fáil governments which had engaged in light regulation which led to the banking crisis.
“I think that Fianna Fáil have done such damage to the Irish economy and the prospects for our future, that it no longer matters who is leading Fianna Fáil or where the leader is from, and I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference in Cork South Central or anywhere else.
“This is an election that is going to be less about individuals than any election that I’ve seen before – I think this election is going to be much more about what parties are going to form the next government and which party has the best plan to get us out of this crisis.”
Mr Gilmore said that comments by Mr Ahern that no one had alerted him to the crisis in the banking sector had provoked justifiable anger from people, and he pointed out that Mr Ahern had presided over the collapse of a successful economy.
“When we last left government in 1997 we handed over a country that was in good order – public finances were in surplus for the first time in around 40 years and we were creating 1,000 jobs a week, but Bertie Ahern turned it into a property bubble and he blew the boom.
“I think a long period of repentant silence is what we now need from Bertie Ahern.” Mr Gilmore cautioned against those who want a more left-leaning government by voting for others on the left as Labour was the only left-wing party that would get into government. Voting for other left-wing candidates could cost Labour seats and influence.
“It seems to me that realistically that there two possible outcomes – a government led by Fine Gael or a government led by Labour – and people considering voting for other parties or groupings or Independents will have to weigh up the consequence of their vote.
“They may consider they are voting for something more radical but the effect of that is to get something a lot more right-wing in terms of the outcome of the government.”