FG women voters ‘will either stay at home or vote for Ivana’
Geoghegan seen as ‘accident prone’ after a number of gaffes during his campaign
FORMER Labour leader Ruairí Quinn has joined the Dublin Bay South byelection fray as the party looks to capitalise on the ‘fake polls’ controversy engulfing its rivals.
Mr Quinn, 75, who managed the rare feat of winning 10 back-to-back constituency battles in the mercurial constituency, insists Labour’s real battle is not with Fine Gael, who currently hold the seat, but with Sinn Féin.
He is adamant that Labour can capitalise on the increasingly fraught battle between Sinn Féin and Fine Gael and come through on the blind side to secure a moraleboosting win.
As such, the former minister for education has been campaigning vigorously for Ivana Bacik in the affluent constituency.
The Labour grandee expressed real confidence in Senator Bacik’s chances.
Mr Quinn told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘She has served her apprenticeship. She is very well regarded in the constituency. She is one of us.’
In a constituency where a large number of the candidates are non-residents, he said: ‘Ivana has lived most of her life in the constituency, in Rathgar and Portobello.’
He also noted that the election, which is being seen as a do-or-die battle for the Alan Kelly leadership, would be ‘very
‘Fine Gael is congenitally incapable of building houses’
much a woman’s contest’.
‘There are many Fine Gael female voters that will either stay at home or vote for Ivana,’ he said.
The former Labour leader also agreed that housing would play a critical role in the vote, which takes place on Thursday, July 8.
‘If you look at the history of Labour, we built housing,’ he said.
‘Fine Gael, by contrast, is congenitally incapable of building social houses. It appears to be against everything in their DNA.’
Labour’s growing sense of hope makes for an intriguing contrast with increasing unease in Fine Gael over the performance of its candidate, James Geoghegan.
The barrister was dragged into controversy this week when he admitted he carried out polling for Lucinda Creighton when he was a member of her Renua party, without identifying that he was polling for the party.
It follows another unwelcome distraction when he was accused of misleading people by ‘giving the impression’ that he lived in Ranelagh (part of the Dublin Bay South constituency).
‘We will just clarify this. I don’t live in Ranelagh, I grew up in Ranelagh,’ he later told a virtual public meeting. One senior Fine Gael source expressed unease over the candidate’s performance in the campaign so far.
‘James is very accident prone. It is starting to make people uneasy.’
Unease is also growing within Fine Gael over the capacity of Mr Geoghegan to secure local support and the female vote - echoing Mr Quinn’s comments.
’It is noticeable that the campaign is very parliamentary partycentred.
‘The foot soldiers are not coming out. Leo, on his visitation, did not look happy, he looked uneasy,’ the source said.
‘There is also a growing belief that women will not turn out for James.
‘One thing is for sure, the Kate O’Connell wing will not be there.’
And some political observers have noted that Sinn Féin, in the wake of the latest spat about party polling, are failing to capitalise on their rivals’ woes.
Within the constituency, their campaign has been circumspect according to observers.
‘They have been very low-key so far. Since Friday they have been sitting in the heartland of the inner city.
‘They seem to be a bit nervous of the leafy suburbs. They haven’t sorted it out yet.’
In an indication of growing confidence, the Labour campaign has started a full door-to-door canvass, ahead of all their rivals.
A Labour insider told the MoS: ‘We have received no complaints so far. The reception has been warm. We can’t print enough of Ivana’s window posters.
‘It’s a big task to go from 8% in Election 2020, to contending, but Ivana is playing at home, she is almost the only candidate who does the constituency the honour of living there and has lived there for most of her life.
‘Also she is a barrister, which is very important here.’
The party insider added: ‘The critical rule of by-elections is that you get momentum early. Lynn Boylan [Sinn Féin] was put in for one reason, to stop Ivana.
‘It’s happy days for us as she has been outed as a former landlady.’
‘The strategy was to isolate us and ensure the war was between Sinn Féin and Fine Gael, but they are doing each other so much damage that they are like the Kilkenny cats. They are devouring each other.’