Minister of State Sean Sherlock today criticised Ireland South Labour MEP Phil Prendergast for her call on Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore to resign, saying Ms Prendergast's comments were "ill-timed and silly".
Mr Sherlock said he found it difficult to take Ms Prendergast’s candidacy seriously after she called on Mr Gilmore to resign four weeks out from an election, when asked whether Labour’s poor showing in opinion polls confirmed Ms Prendergast’s view of Mr Gilmore.
"I've have no thoughts on Phil's comments whatsoever. I'm one of those politicians, I keep the head down, I have my own team and I do my own thing," said Mr Sherlock, speaking during a visit to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in Cork.
“Phil made her own decision, she made a comment about the leadership, I thought it was ill-timed, I thought it was silly, I thought it lacked any cop-on, to be frank about it. How could could you take anybody seriously as a candidate after that ?”
Asked about the most recent opinion poll, which had Labour at 6 per cent, Mr Sherlock said he had not spent much time dwelling on opinion polls as his focus has been on getting Labour candidates elected to Cork County Council.
“My focus has been on trying to get our local election candidates over the line on 23rd May - we have good candidates - I haven’t time to be thinking about opinion polls; I’m confident that we will get our people elected,” he said adding the campaign had “a strange dynamic”.
“Yes, we are meeting anger on the doorsteps, but when you get over that initial anger and once you have a proper engagement with people on the doorsteps and you explain what you are trying to do, it’s not as angry as people are perceiving it, maybe within the media.
“We have good candidates and they have good relationships with people on the ground. Our candidates are known as hard workers, and we’re hoping to get them over the line. It’s going to be tough, I’m not trying to gloss over it in any way but I think their hard work will pay off.”
Mr Sherlock said he did not know what the ultimate outcome would be in the local elections, but said he wasn't presuming Fianna Fáil would benefit from the anger people might feel towards the Government parties.
“All I know is that it is a difficult campaign - there is certainly anger at the Government, but I’m not sure the tide is going in for Fianna Fáil either because there as many people who are still as angry with Fianna Fáil as they are angry with this Government about issues.”
Mr Sherlock refused to be drawn on the arrest of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams by the PSNI in connection with the murder of Jean McConville. He was reluctant to comment on what impact it might have on Sinn Féin's performance in the local and Euro elections.
“I’m not going to comment on the arrest of anybody. If there is a legal process in play, it would be ill-advised for me to make any comment ... there is a process under way in which the gentleman in question has been detained for questioning and I don’t know anything else.
“Mary Lou McDonald said today that she didn’t think there was a political element to it from a 26 counties perspective, and we’ll take that at face value - the gentlemen has been brought in for questioning and there’s a legal process under way and I’ll leave it at that.”
