In an agreed vote-management strategy, the Progressive Democrats last night selected three candidates to stand in Galway West in the general election in place of Minister of State Mr Bobby Molloy.
Mr Molloy announced his retirement following a controversy over his representations on the behalf of the sister of a man convicted for the rape of his daughter.
The candidates are current Lord Mayor of Galway, Mr Donal Lyons; former lord mayor Mr Declan McDonnell; and county councillor Mr Noel Grealish.
Mr Molloy received a standing ovation at the convention, which was chaired by party chairman Mr John Minihan.
Addressing the meeting, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, warned that the Labour Party's economic strategy would jeopardise jobs. She said Labour and "commentators" were "wrong to say that the choice is between low taxes and public services".
Earlier yesterday Ms Harney announced the creation of almost 600 new jobs in Galway. She denied the timing was "staged" in the approach to the election.
She used her party's convention to attack Labour's economic strategy, outlined in Dublin earlier this week.
"When we want to encourage something, we lower tax on it. To encourage manufacturing jobs, we've had a 10 per cent tax rate. It has delivered hundreds of thousands of jobs, with a lot of work by the IDA and others."
To encourage the IFSC to grow "we introduced a special 10 per cent tax rate. And it has delivered well over 8,000 jobs so far. When the Government wanted to encour- age artists to live in Ireland they made artists' earnings free of tax. Unsurprisingly, artists now live here.
"And when the Government wants to discourage something, we increase tax on it," she said.
