LABOUR PARTY:THE RESULTS of yesterday's opinion poll in The Irish Timesrepresented an "historic first" for Labour and meant Irish politics had become a three-way contest, party leader Eamon Gilmore said.
Mr Gilmore said the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll opened up the prospect of a Labour-led government after the next general election. The poll put Labour at 32 per cent, Fianna Fáil at 17 and Fine Gael at 28.
“To have been placed in the lead position in a major national opinion poll, obviously I’m very pleased with that,” he said.
Speaking on the plinth at Leinster House yesterday morning, Mr Gilmore said the poll reflected a strong desire for political change across the country. Increasing numbers of people were looking to the Labour Party to provide that change, he said.
“I believe that politics has now become a three-way contest in this country. What I think today’s opinion poll confirms is my belief and my conviction that that three-way contest can be won by the Labour Party.” The Labour leader said the Coalition was at the end of its life and serving out its notice. Asked about Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny’s poor personal showing in the poll, Mr Gilmore said the poll was about parties rather than individuals.
“This Government is really at the end of its life. It’s now serving out its notice. I think it’s not in the interests of the country to have a Government continuing in office that is clapped-out, that the people have no confidence in and that really are just now in damage limitation mode,” he said.
“The last months of this Government will be devoted it would appear to minimising the electoral damage to Fianna Fáil rather than addressing the problems of the country.” The country was in “a very big mess” economically.
Labour's deputy leader Joan Burton described the poll as "a very important opening" for the party. The next election would be a "three-horse race" in which Mr Gilmore would present himself "to thinking voters" as a serious candidate for Taoiseach, she told RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland.
Speaking in Kilkenny yesterday afternoon, Mr Gilmore said the most likely general election outcome would be a Labour/Fine Gael coalition, “and I think the issue that has to be decided is the respective strengths of the parties in that government and which party would lead it”.
Labour would “pursue an independent electoral strategy”, he said and would be running more than one candidate in most constituencies.
Mr Gilmore said he felt “sorry” for the Green Party. He said the vote of confidence in Taoiseach Brian Cowen next Tuesday would prove a “watershed moment” for the junior coalition partners.
The Greens had “a major decision to make” about whether to prop up a “clapped-out government”, he said. “I feel sorry for the Greens,” Mr Gilmore said, because he believed they had “been taken for a ride by Fianna Fáil”.
He added that if the Greens and Fianna Fáil backbenchers “vote confidence in Mr Cowen and his government next week they can’t return to their constituencies the following day or the following week and then try to distance themselves from him”.