Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated 10.50pm
Camera: Michelle Hennessy/TheJournal.ie
TÁNAISTE EAMON GILMORE has admitted that the agenda has been set for the government rather than the other way around in recent months.
Gilmore said the coalition has had “a bad couple of months” and the controversy surrounding An Garda Siochána and “justice issues” has been “very frustrating for us”.
He said that a new programme for government is not needed but that “there are issues that now have to be addressed” citing job creation in the regions and improving living standards.
He said: “One of the things that I hear as I travel around the country, whether it is in Waterford or Galway or Cavan, are people saying: ‘Well, yes, we know that jobs are being created but there isn’t a regional spread.’ We have to see a regional spread in that.”
Gilmore was speaking in a wide-ranging interview with TheJournal.ie at our offices in Dublin today where he also bullishly claimed that Labour is in contention for two European Parliament seats in Friday’s election.
“The opinion poll that’s out today puts the party in contention for two seats,” he said, claiming that Lorraine Higgins in Midlands North-West and sitting MEP Emer Costello in Dublin are in with a chance.
He did not refer to the prospects of Ireland South MEP Phil Prendergast – who called for him to resign as Labour leader- but said that electoral battle in Dublin will see people having a choice between Costello and “the party that got us into the crisis” – Fianna Fáil and its candidate Mary Fitzpatrick.
Gilmore also declined to make any prediction about how Labour might do in Friday’s local and European elections.
He said: “I think everybody realistically expects that you don’t get all of your candidates elected…. I am not going to make a prediction, I never have.”
He said that the nearly 200 Labour candidates running across the country could look to the fact that Labour councillors have had a good track record, have “never been in anyone’s pocket” and “never been bought”.
Tomorrow on TheJournal.ie: More from our interview with the Tánaiste including water charges, his future, and that of the government.
- First pulished 5.57pm
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Bad couple of years. You sold your voters out within weeks of been elected. No vote for you and no vote for Fine Gael.
very start of the video… ‘I think we have had a bad couple of months’… no Eamon you have had a grand couple of months with your big paycheck, pensions and whatever other entitlements you are allowed. while the normal working folk struggle to pay bills with the massive amount of taxes we pay!!!
Gilmore…if you think what’s just past is bad on you wait until what’s to come… you deserve everything bad thing coming to you. Traitor !!
He does’nt care. After a couple of years of being in Government, he now qualifies for free gravy for life.
Great that Labour will be wiped out in Europe, but it irks me greatly that Fine Gael stand to win four seats. They are the bigger problem. Shame on the South if, as predicted, they elect not only two Fine Gaelers but a Fianna Failer as well, as predicted.
Animal at least he stood up for the barristers when shatter tried to bring in some regulation
I see 11 people have given a thumbs down on Kevin s comment, so let’s hear why also why on the thumbs down on all other comments, surely you all can’t be stupid enough to still believe in labour and FG
That’d be labour media office or young lab Willy
Who cares now Eamonn ?
You are most deserving of everything the Citizens of Ireland are going to land on you and your awful sellout gangsters.
Of course those of us who are around long enough saw this as inevitable anyway !
We knew these guys and their various transformations through various guises and Political Parties over a 40 year period !
They are just opportunists of the lowest calibre – Stickies – pseudo Socialists pseudo Republicans – They have worn all the disguises Rabbitte and himself .
Now it’s nearing the end game – thank goodness .
Good ol Eamonn. Still no f***ing idea of what’s actually happening.
I think a few spin doctors as with the emperor will be found to have no clothes on after Friday.
Bad couple of months? Where do they live, in la-la land? It has been a bad number of years for me. There are so many not in a good place and struggling to get our feet down. Months is nothing compared to years. It is no vote for FF in any way or form as this recession was made worse by them. It is impossible to get this country back on track. Well, it is happening but it is far too slow for far too many people.
This politician just doesn’t get it. We don’t like you not only because of one or two things. We don’t like you because you basically forgot why WE elected you.
How I despise that man. What alt the bad 3 years you have inflicted?
I understand why people want to punish Labour, but why isn’t there the same level of anger towards FG? They’re apparently still on 25% support, which just makes the mind boggle. Why does the junior partner in a coalition always suffer the most?
Maybe, Ian, because the junior partner in any coalition is seen, rightly or wrongly as a check on the excesses of the dominant partner. (We see this with the Liberal party in the UK which seems destined to tank in the next elections there.) Plus, of course the fact that Labour have always sold themselves as the party of the working person. This Labour government has shown that far from being a party for the ordinary person, they’ve sold out the very people they were supposed to represent with their enthusiastic support for Fine Gael’s austerity programme. Here endeth the rant.
Kevin what should the government do about the 2 billion a year overspend ??? Get the IMF back
@ Ian. The reason is simple. FG effectively said at the last election it would by and large follow the policy of FF. This they have done.
Labour said it would be “labour’s way nor frankfurts way”. And they lied.
Remember Rabbits comments “sure isn’t that what you say in an election”.
I completely get that. The speed with which they reneged on everything they promised is shocking, even in Irish politics. If I were in Ireland I wouldn’t be giving them a single preference, even though I used to. If Labour didn’t agree in principle with the FG-driven austerity they should have walked out of government. Would have been the honourable thing to do. But aren’t FG just as responsible for austerity? Where is the anger towards them?
JOHN, I agree that we were in a dificult situation, but Labour should have reigned in Fine Gael’s eagerness to bow to every dictat of Brussels. Some members of the IMF and even the EU parliament (former members) are saying that we should not have had to shoulder all the debt that the Fianna Fail goverment took on and that Fine Gael should have asked for a reduction in the debt and would have got it.
Do you not remember the phrases “not one red cent” and “it’s immoral to tax a person’s home”? The debt burden should have been spread more equitably with the greater burden falling on those most able to brear it. Instead this government have loaded the debt onto the most vulnerable in society and protected their own wealthy and powerful friends. I also used to vote Labour but never again.
the gravy train should be taxed to the hilt.if you are on social welfare and refuse the job share your social welfare can be reduced or stopped if you are a government minister you dont have to sign on because the taxpayer will fund your lavish life style and fix you up with something else.bet there will be no immediate meetings to curb their expenses
Well it’s about to get a lot worse Eamon.
Just think of Phil Hogan when going to vote. That will do the trick for me.
Great actor..
Someone should nominate him for an oscar…
Eamon Gilmore EXCLUSIVE: “The pope is a Catholic”.
And bears …
I always gave Labour a vote. Never again
Great to hear, lets hope everyone else who voted for labour see the light also
I’m embarrassed to say they had mine for thirty years and I encouraged my children to vote for them I helped put Two labour candidates in the last election What disappointments they turned out to be. Plus finding out that Pat was Franks best man. Labour FG FF all the fu@king same. I’ve apologised to my children and they tell me labour can go fu@k them selfs on Friday. I feel so cheated and lied to I will never vote for labour again.
And if you are a member of a union make sure that your Shop Steward gets a form for you to fill out to ensure none of your union dues make their way to the Labour Party. It’s bad enough that they, along with the other parties, are getting millions of our taxes to pay for their campaigns.
Bad couple of months, you are having g a laugh, look again Gilmore, it’s bad since you got into power, I hope the public that voted for labour remember you sold the people down the river for the benefit of the Euro euro zone, shame on you and the rest of our current government
Gilmore said “He said that the nearly 200 Labour candidates running across the country could look to the fact that Labour councillors have had a good track record, have “never been in anyone’s pocket” and “never been bought”.”
He seems to forget that Labour is FG’s pocket and he Gilmore sold out for a pension.
No sh!t Eamon just wait to saturday when the counts are over
So sorry for whoever has the grim task of putting the hundred million posters of Lorraine Higgins spread throughout the west of Ireland into the bin this weekend…I’ve never been so tired of a human face apart from my own.
Just when you think Eamon Gilmore couldn’t get any thicker,
That man never fails to deliver…
Mensa won’t be ringing him any time soon…
You wonder how long it will take for Labour to see that, no matter what the news is, if it is delivered by Gilmore, Quinn, Rabbitte it will be roundly criticised. They are so loathed by people that they actually undermine any real value the news might have. Until they go, Labour can be giving away ten to everybody in the audience and it won’t make a blind bit of difference
Democratic Practices in Ireland 2014…Hope
Mensa…is read as:
Asnem to the simple leaders of Dail Eireann.
When our Enda and Eamon speak on political policy they mean the opposite to the received message.
We will be accountable ie a statement when decoded by reversal …means we will be taking care of cronies, bankers and nepotism is our game.
We are unaccountable.
Openness in government means secrecy will prevail.
Simply decode every government statement by reading their spiel as meaning the direct opposite.
Simply put governments lie to the citizens some times.
In Ireland the government lies about everything all of the time.
Spin and PR is employing people to deceive and twist the truth.
That practice has had its day.
Proof that spoof from politicians is a failed PR …spin game is about to be exposed on Friday polling on 23 May 2014.
The simple people who govern have been tolerated and allowed to corrupt the Democratic Practices of a great Irish Republic.
Times are changing.
A new dawn for language and the meaning of language.
Accountability and transparency in Irish Government leadership is upon us…?
Dandahan4.com
You think a bad couple of month, look again, from the sad you you got into power, dont expect to ever get into power any time soon after the next election
Won’t be leader of much after Friday !
Roll on Friday when we give him a bashing at the ballot box. Then roll on Saturday when we get to see his face.
Gilmore needs a history lesson. The Great Lockout had a few lessons for all of us, 1 the biggest Slum Landlords were city councillors at the time 2 Councillors broke all the rules to facilitate their own selfish ends.
Nothing has changed — Our Labour Lord Mayor broke 4 rules of ethics in the council and Councillors or their families and their companies are still the biggest Landlords in Dublin. Even Mrs Gilmore sold the site at a huge price to the local school in Galway. On top of all that the Labour Minister for education handed Mrs Gilmore a big pensionable job.
The ordinary people are going through hell while Labour councillors and politicians have done really well out of our misery.
And we never found out if Mrs G took annual leave and paid BIK for her largesse travel.
Deluded ? Stupid ? Out of touch ? Idiotic ? Ignorant ? Pathetic ? Please feel free to add to the list !
Untrustworthy, delusional, sly.
No gilmore,you and your party lied from start to finish and treated the people that trusted and put their faith in labour like dirt.
Now you and labour are going to be destroyed and about time as well.
Now you’ll get your useless lieing face out of the trough and listen.
Every time he talks I still cant help but think back to mario rosentstocms impression of him dressed up as a granny knitting
So “Labour” have had a bad couple of months. Boo hoo! What about the electorate “Labour” sh**ted? Stinking fat cat.
Gilmore you are in Enda, s pocket and you have been bought.Please fall on your sword asap.
Sold out the people and party!The worst kind of politician who will go down in Irish history for all the wrong reasons.
The higher they rise the bigger the fall…gilmore will get some land…liar!!!!!
Dam right let’s hope Kenny falls right on top of him, can’t De ide which one is worse
ya think.. the day you set up house with fg you where finished. you are fg bi&@h, you don’t have to think about that i am hoping at this point you know it.
What’s the story here?
Gilmore states the obvious or Gilmore is deluded?
Labour’s way was deluded! The country was in a quagmire, but to make unattainable promises to a frightened and malleable nation by politicians who were aware of the situation, and promised ‘pie in the sky’ policy’s has inevitable consequences when they are held to account at the ever looming ballot box.
The man is a tool of a fool !
Well MENSA will probably find he is extremely busy running a country. Unfortunately it’s not a faraway country. But you have to give it to him. He’s got a brass neck and plastic balls. When can we all move to planet Gilmore and has he any spare rooms??. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
Labour does not reserve our votes at all!!!! Difference between “think” and reality is a fact!!!!
Gilmore “I think everybody realistically expects that you don’t get all of your candidates elected…. I am not going to make a prediction, I never have.” but he also claimed that Lorraine Higgins in Midlands North-West and sitting MEP Emer Costello in Dublin are in with a chance, well if that is not a prediction i don’t know what is…. Is Gilmore just a Pathological Liar.
You think ye?
We have a bad few Months??? what’s all this WE had, pale face
No shit mr gilmore, we have had a very poor 3 years since you & your shower got into office.
No shit Sherlock :-)
Such a deluded halfwit.
I have to point out Eamon, it is not the gardai or justice issues that will sink Labour, no it is the water taxes, carbon taxes, property taxes, usc, wage cuts, levys, cutting medical cards to sick and poor people, homelessness, vat increases, universal health insurance, taxes, taxes, taxes, endless taxes and we do not have enough money left to eat, so yes I hope Labour and fine gael and fianna fail all feel the brunt of our despair on Friday, I just can’t wait to vote.
That’s what thinking does for ya!!
Labour turned their backs on the Irish People.
They are going to suffer for it.
Simple as.
I cannot wait to use my vote to get Labour and Fine Gael out of Govt.
Labour will be decimated and Fine Gael (or what’s left of them) should NEVER be voted back in to Govt again.
Eamon, you shafted the ordinary citizens, robbed the young of their future, doomed the elderly to undignified suffering, banished our loved ones to life in a foreign country; but your most heinous crime is that you stole hope from every man, woman and child.
Just go!!!!!!!!
Seriously,has this guy eamon been smoking meth. The ammount of porkies that he’s come out with and his cronies too. Why in God’s name would anyone believe a word he comes out with.I feel he’s been a real let down to the nation.
Wouldn’t ye love to slap that stupid face !
Gilmore = Idiot
Deluded.com
Eamonn suggest you take some time to yourself on Sunday….
You’ll find you have a lot of time to think where it all went so spectacularly wrong….
You sold out your principles.
You sold out your party.
You sold out your supporters.
You sold out your people.
You sold out your country.
All those things you will rationalise and justify…
but eventually you sold your soul.
Enjoy your retirement at our expense.
ha bad couple of months, more like a bad couple of years Eamon.
It’s good the agenda has been set for them.
The agenda, which has been fueled by Irish peoples outrage at the state incompetence, has helped root out a bit of said incompetence and corruption which plagues the state. It seems he doesn’t like this fact. Also, if it was Gilmore’s government who always set the agenda regardless of the will of the people, we’d all be living Frankfurt’s way- I mean Labour’s way…
What an absolute tramp that man is. He lied his way into government.
#Shannon #Airport #renditionflights #hypocrisy Good luck Eamonn (and the greens)
Funny man
Roll on Friday
I left the Labour Party when they failed to build a coalition of the left, and allow voters in the state to make a call between a government of the left and a government of the centre right.
Having said that with over 50% of voters preferring centre right parties like FF and FG, it may have been an impossible dream on my part. I assume the majority of comments on this page are from people who do not share my dreams.
Labour did not secure enough seats to do anything else but take the worst excesses of FG policy to protect the very wealthy at the expense of the poorest and the coping classes. While they will not be getting Number 1s from me they will be getting transfers to ensure the left returns as many to the EU and Council as possible.
Labour did not secure enough seats to do anything else but take the worst excesses of FG policy to protect the very wealthy at the expense of the poorest and the coping classes.
This is not true. They could have remained in opposition until the next election working on genuine Left policies. Yesterday’s ‘rich list’ (a sickener to read) highlighted how nothing has changed. Labour are over.
If FG had gone alone SW core rates would have been cut, and the social wage for the poorest citizens would have had been hit much harder, if you doubt this read the pre election manifesto.
This sounds like the kind of Labour comment we are now all too familiar with: ‘we saved the poor’. For God’s sake
Well I for one will keep voting for parties of the left, any maybe before I die enough others will join with me to ensure Ireland becomes a fairer society.
So will I. But there is one less party to vote for now. If you look at local and national elections the choice is narrowing down all the time. This is why Labour’s aligning themselves with FG and the interests they represent is so bloody depressing. Entering into the coalition was like signing a death warrant. And it isn’t as if this wasn’t pointed out. The idea that they could be more effective opposition while in government was…well, laughable really. The only positive thing to take from this is that at least we now know where Labour stand
So what parties on the left are pure enough for you to support Andrew? Are you saying you would prefer to transfer to the centre right rather than Labour?
Labour ARE now centre right. This is the point I was trying to make (not clearly enough for you obviously). So, I won’t be transferring to them.
Fianna Fáil held the country to ransom and Gilmore rides in on his white steed to rescue us all, as a hostage negotiator. Just before he reaches the Aras, he dismounts and turns his political beliefs inside out. I believe the correct term is turncoat. Historically, turncoats turned their coats inside out, out of fear, which is somewhat understandable. The modern day turncoats, who choose to do so out of greed, are beneath contempt. Welcome to the halls of infamy.
RIP labour. Turn on the very ones who believed your anti FF rants. Only to back stab your supporters and become the yes party to FG & the troika
Bahaaaaa … A bad couple of months .. Well you’ll be delighted to know that the bad couple of months , or more appropriately bad couple of years …. Has put the remaining nails in the coffin of labour :):) and the soviet style tactics the labour & comrades used to introduce the liberal abortion laws now in place …had ensured the killing off of 25% of their tradition working class voters before the are even born …. So long farewell … Hope they enjoy their rightful place in history :):):
No s**t Sherlock
eammon gilmore u have let the working man and women down .get out of goverment while u still can.U have broken all ur promises,u and enda kenny have pushed the people to breaking point,what devious plans have u cooked up to screw us again.people of ireland now is ur chance,payback time.
That has Tòo be the Understatement of the Decade Brains
Labour’s problem is that they went into government.
Left wing parties always spout promises they know they can’t keep – it’s what they’re good at. Cut taxes, increase spending, etc. Irish people lap it up in their droves, because who doesn’t want to pay less taxes and get more benefits, right?
And since the left is so splintered due to the inherent populist nature of socialism, they mostly end up in opposition. Handy. Continue to harp on about how terrible the government is and how brilliant your policies are. Shout a few times, offer no constructive criticism whatsoever, and get your salary at the end of the day.
But Labour made the fatal mistake of going into government. Suddenly they realised that all their completely ridiculous ‘Frankfurt’s way or Labour’s way’ policies were completely unfeasible. While the other leftist parties were free to cash in on all of their votes by continuing to spout the rubbish Labour spouted when in opposition.
So I know you’re angry at Labour. But be warned – People Before Profit, Sinn Fein, Anti-Austerity Alliance, etc, if elected, would suffer the exact same fate.
In the words of a famous economist: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. The sooner people who truly believe in socialism understand this, the better. It’s why Fine Gael are still the most popular party on Ireland. They impose austerity because they know they have to, and they don’t try lie about it to get elected.
Adios Amigo. Can’t wait till the results flood in ;)
When he retires on his ministerial pension he won’t give a flying f**k about the peoples woes, a bit like he doesn’t give a flying f**k now. Just like ex FF and green ministers gilomore and his cronies will slip on to the retirement gravy train and vanish laughing into obscurity
I’m gonna just start my own poll…..
Green arrow if you think Gilmore will be forced to go after the local elections …not SHOULD he go….but WILL he go ????
Red Arrow if you think he will survive the local elections………..
Never been bought….but you did sell out
All party, no labour for years, not months, hope your wiped out at the poll
Bye bye Eamon!!!!!
Eamon, you have shit on the eggs..
Please, please, please what ever you do, do not vote for these ECB and IMF yes men anymore. FF whom made the snowball and FG and Labour for throwing them.
Do you think?
This mans astuteness is admiring.
“Bad couple of months” and I thought the Brits were meant to be the masters of understatement or is he too stupid/arrogant to see that it’s been more than a couple of months.
He along with a couple of assistants has made pretty sure that Labour are going to get a hammering in a couple of days and there’s nowt he can do about it now.
have your say