IV DONE IT
Labour’s Ivana Bacik wins by-election to pile fresh pressure on Micheal Martin
LABOUR’S Ivana Bacik has been elected a TD for the first time after winning the Dublin Bay South by-election.
It’s a major blow to Fianna Fail and piles pressure on Micheal Martin’s leadership.
His candidate Deirdre Conroy received just under 5% of the vote which has been described as “extremely concerning”.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar denied there are question marks over his leadership after the party lost the seat once occupied by former Housing Minister and TD Eoghan Murphy who resigned in April.
Senator Bacik said: “I’m just so deeply honoured and grateful. I’m absolutely over the moon.
“The Labour values of quality and solidarity clearly resonated.”
Mr Martin said he is “absolutely” confident of his position and insisted it is his “intention to lead the party into the next election”.
His comments came after Fianna Fail TD Jim O’callaghan said “we’ll have to think about that” when he was asked at the count centre whether he thought there should be a change at the helm.
PROBLEM
He admitted the party “don’t understand the scale of the problem in housing yet”.
Mr O’callaghan added he wouldn’t be surprised if “alarm bells are ringing in the heads of most Fianna Fail TDS” and said Fianna Fail needs a more “radical approach” to tackling the housing crisis.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou Mcdonald said: “It is now clear the Government is living on borrowed time.”
Her party’s candidate Lynn Boylan secured 16% of first preference votes based on tallies.
She did exceptionally well in the inner-city working-class areas and held her own in more affluent areas as well.
Ms Mcdonald said: “It is now clear that we have a Government living on borrowed time, it’s very clear that the Government’s support in the constituency has collapsed.
“We look forward to fighting a general election, the real deal... and the sooner the better.”
Fine Gael’s candidate James Geoghegan congratulated Senator Bacik on her win and said he put his best foot forward and was proud of his campaign.
Mr Varadkar said there had been both good and bad elections under his leadership and added: “I’ll be around for a while yet.”
I’m deeply honoured. Labour’s values of quality and solidarity clearly resonated IVANA BACIK DUBLIN, YESTERDAY