Rabbittes personal attack on Cllr Kieran Walsh

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Thursday August 03, 2006 00:09 by Kieran Walsh - Labour Party kieranwalsh124 at hotmail dot com C/O City Hall Limerick 087 9255824

Kierans Response

Folks, Pat Rabbitte, Leader of the Labour Party said some not very nice things about me on a recent visit to Limerick. I dont have the full copy of the text but his comments were mostly about my indiscipline regarding various comments i have made about the state of Labour movement, my opposition to the mullingar accord, etc etc etc

Hope its ok to publish my response here. I have sent same to local media

Cllr Kieran Walsh bemused by more interference
2nd August 2006

Cllr. Kieran Walsh has said today that he is bitterly disappointed with his party leader Deputy Rabbitte, whom, on a recent visit to Limerick, didn’t try and contact any of the three Labour Councillors on Limerick City Council, before making profoundly uninformed remarks regarding the current state of the Labour Party in Limerick.

“ I find it extrememly disconcerting that Deputy Rabbitte is making these remarks without even picking up the telephone to me or my colleagues, some of whom also share my concerns regarding the Labour Partys future in Limerick East. The last time I spoke with Deputy Rabbitte was six weeks ago, when he was threatening others and me as to our membership of the Labour Group within Limerick City Council.

Having fought more General and Local elections as a loyal Labour member than Deputy Rabbitte, Cllr Walsh feels that he has every right to express his views on the Labour movement, without fear of being rebuked from a man who has only recently made the convertion to mainstream politics.

“If Deputy Rabbitte seriously doubts my claims that Labour is trouble in Limerick, then I invite him to come knocking on doors with me over the summer months to see the fullness of the impact of the Mullingar accord, however he does not need to come to Limerick, he just needs to analyse the last 18 months of opinion polls that show Labours support as more or less static”. Fine Gael have increased in support, and I fear that the working class people of Ireland will move to other Left wing partys in order to ensure better representation.” Added Cllr walsh.

“ Perhaps it is true that certain sections of the Labour Party are out of touch with working class people because of the cosy circumstances that they have found themselves in, this shall not deter me from trying my hardest to represent what I see as the failings of Irish Politics”.

Regarding Rabbitte’s claims that there is not enough intereference in Local affairs by national politicians, Walsh claims that elements within the higher echelons of the Labour party have drastically overstepped the line in an attempt to influence the outcome of Limericks mayoral election last June. “What happened in June was disgusting, there were attempts made to interfere with peoples future possible livelihoods in a direct attempt to secure a mayoralty for one individual, and by anyone’s standards, this is wholly unacceptable”

Added to this, The Labour Party has expressed a view that more power should be given to Local Authorities under its “New Councils” policy document. How this squares up to Rabbittes latest comments is beyond my comprehension. Local Councillors are supposed to run the City, without fear or Favour and to make the best decisions on behalf of the people.

It must be pointed out that I have never voted against my Party in the Council, the only person to vote against the Labour Party is Mayor Leddin. He did this when he voted against Cllr. James Houlihan contrary to a signed agreement, which would have seen a Labour Candidate as deputy Mayor.

Rabbittes assertion that the current unrest in Limerick Labour is purely a “personality conflict” shows his outright lack of vision and leadership skills. If deputy rabbitte had bothered to come near me or my other council colleagues, We would have told him exactly what the differences are. I have always said that I have no problem with the appointment of Joe Leddin as Jan O Sullivan’s parliamentary assistant, it was the ham-fisted methodology of the appointment that got under the nose of many long serving Labour members.

I am absolutely baffled by Deputy Rabbittes continued intereference in local matters. I cannot understand the reasoning behind this personal attack, or the concentrated effort that Deputy Rabbitte and others are putting into to this dispute. I believe that Labours efforts should be concentrating on vote getting and policy issues rather than castigating a local councillor