Howlin still cautious over deals with FF and FG
BRENDAN Howlin believes it will be a ‘tall order’ to get Labour to return to Government with Fine Gael or Fianna Fail after the election.
The Labour leader issued a robust criticism of Fine Gael’s record on housing on the first full day of campaigning in Dublin Bay South yesterday morning, which also happens to be Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy’s constituency.
‘As far as I’m concerned, it is entirely policy driven – Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are chameleons… they are parties that adopt to the philosophical views of others that they go into coalition with,’ he said. He called for a more Scandanavianstyle society. ‘Why can’t we be like the Norways and the Denmarks and the Finlands and the Netherlands? Having quality public services, decent health standards, we can do that.
‘And I suppose the missing ingredient is, in all those countries, I’ve instanced Labour has been at the heart of policymaking for the last number of decades.’
Mr Howlin claimed the current Government have shown ‘no palpable will, no determination, to fix the crisis of housing’. His party colleague Kevin Humphreys, a former junior minister, is their candidate in that constituency and they yesterday highlighted the vacant Glass Bottle Site in Ringsend, which has been long earmarked for redevelopment.
He again dismissed entering into Government with Sinn Féin and said: ‘I don’t think that is something that we could entertain, to be quite honest with you.’
His party had a tough election in 2016 and were left with just seven seats, and yesterday, asked if he would have the support of Labour’s members to enter into a coalition with either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, Mr Howlin insisted ‘we are not a debating society, we’re a political party’. ‘We’re not there to simply identify problems, and then debate them,’ he said.