A round-up of today's other election stories in brief ....
"The Government are treating people as serfs for the rich and wealthy; we, the workers, are paying for their sins."
Former Waterford Crystal worker Donie Fell, a People Before Profit Alliance candidate for Waterford City Council.
"I have never before detected such a level of seething anger with a government. Despised is not too strong a term."
Eamon Gilmore on the mood of the electorate
D'Arcy not official poster boy for Greens
THE GREEN Party says it would be “more than happy” to talk to Gordon D’Arcy if he ever fancied pursuing a political career, but claims it had no involvement in putting up the above poster, which was spotted outside the RDS over the weekend.
“Gordon D’Arcy’s posters are not part of a Green Party plot to recruit Leinsters famous centre,” Green Party MEP candidate Déirdre de Búrca said.
D’Arcy’s possible political ambitions remained a mystery last night.
RTÉ's "Ganley excess"
RTÉ has rejected an allegation from Independent European election candidate Fiachra Ó Luain that the broadcaster is failing to give adequate coverage to Independent candidates and giving excess airtime to Declan Ganley of Libertas.
Mr Ó Luain has written to the Head of the Expert Group Assessment of the Elections to the European Parliament to complain about the State broadcaster’s conduct.
Mr Ó Luain said his requests to participate in debates have been denied by RTÉ but that the broadcaster has given as much airtime to Mr Ganley, whom he describes as an “unelected businessman”, as to sitting MEPs.
A spokeswoman for RTÉ said it carefully monitors and rigorously balances its election coverage of parties and candidates and is satisfied that Mr Ó Luain’s concerns are unfounded.
My minority beats yours
The main parties are vying for the title of “best minorities representatives” in this year’s local elections.
The Green Party is trumpeting the fact that it has the highest proportion of immigrant candidates with eight hopefuls accounting for 8 per cent of its total nominees. But Fianna Fáil has the largest number of candidates with 10, Fine Gael are tied with the Greens at eight.
Of the larger parties Labour is running the smallest number immigrants candidates at four; Sinn Féin has none.
However, a Fine Gael spokesman pointed out that when it comes to representing women, who are arguably a minority group in Irish politics, they outstrip the Greens. The party is running 172 women as opposed to 29 for the Greens. Still, just 22 per cent of Fine Gael’s candidates though.
