Martin is Clear Winner - Statement from Mary Hanafin TD

Tonight Micheál Martin won a decisive victory in the debate with the Labour Party Leader, Eamon Gilmore.

Micheál Martin laid out a clear plan to restore Ireland’s economy, create jobs and fundamentally reform our government and politics.

Fro m the beginning, Eamon Gilmore ran away from his own record and his past statements.

Firstly, Eamon Gilmore denied supporting the €15 billion adjustment by 2014. The facts are he did. In October 2010, he said

“Ever since the Government made its agreement with our partners in Europe to reach the 3% target by 2014, the Labour Party has supported it in that objective. We have done so because we believe it is extremely important that Ireland send a united signal to the wider world that we are serious about dealing with our deficit.” - Dail Eireann, Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Sec ondly Eamon Gilmore denied that he was calling for unilateral re-negotiation of the EU-IMF agreement. This is despite the fact that he said only last week that it was “It’s Frankfurt’s way or Labour’s way.” He also unequivocally said” it was a bad deal, it is going to have to be renegotiated.” He ran away from these words on national television.

Thirdly he said that Professor Honohan never said there would be “ catastrophic” and “immediate” consequences for our economy if there was no bank guarantee. In fact, he did say it and here is the full quote:

"Closure of all, or a large part, of the banking system would have entailed a catastrophic immediate and sustained economy-wide disruption involving very significant, albeit extremely difficult to quantify social costs, reflecting in particular the fundamental function of the payments system in a modern economy…. Considering the experience of other countries in such circumstances, the social and economic costs, if they could be quantified, would surely have run into tens of billions of euros…. These immediate costs were avoided by the guarantee."

Micheál Martin made the case strongly for Fianna Fáil’s plans and policies. He laid out in detail how to grow the economy, to deal with the budget crisis, to create jobs and to fundamentally reform Irish politics. Micheál Martin also exposed the constant changing of Labour’s policies as proof that they are practitioners of the same old politics as usual.

But the biggest loser in the debate may in fact have been the candidate who was not there. Enda Kenny’s absence from tonight’s debate raises serious questions about his capacity to be Taoiseach and lead Ireland.

The debate was held because Micheál Martin invited the other candidates to a series of debates on the day he was elected leader of Fianna Fáil. This is the beginning of a process to change politics in Ireland and to make it more responsive to people and to make it more substantive.