TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has said he is confident that Fine Gael can win the Dublin West byelection on October 27th.
Mr Kenny also said he believed Gay Mitchell would win the presidential election, notwithstanding lacklustre support levels in a series of opinion polls. Mr Kenny officially launched the campaign of the Fine Gael candidate, Eithne Loftus, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown yesterday.
Ms Loftus, originally from Mayo, is a long-standing councillor in Fingal and has lived in the constituency for 30 years.
She won over 3,000 votes in the 2009 election, one of the highest personal votes in the country. She was nominated by a selection convention last month in preference to Cllr Kieran Dennison, who was the running mate of the party’s sitting TD, Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar, in the general election.
Mr Kenny said: “I am confident that we will win the byelection. The candidate chosen by Fine Gael, Cllr Loftus, is an outstanding candidate. She has been endorsed by the community in Dublin West, where she achieved one of the highest votes in the country as a councillor.”
He said the challenge for the organisation was explaining Cllr Loftus’s qualities and characteristics throughout Dublin West, a sprawling constituency that includes Castleknock, Blanchardstown, Mulhuddart and suburbs like Clonee that are close to the border with Co Meath.
“Obviously you can never argue with a decision of the people and that decision will be made in multiple form by the people here on October 27th.
“I am very confident that Eithne Loftus will join the Fine Gael representation in Dáil Éireann.”
The director of elections, Brian Hayes, also confirmed that Fine Gael was in favour of a voting pact with its Coalition partner, the Labour Party. However, the party was unsure if Labour in the constituency would agree to a pact. Its candidate, Patrick Nulty, argued very strongly against a Coalition arrangement with Fine Gael at the party’s special convention last March. Privately, Fine Gael has said that Cllr Loftus is the only candidate who can be relied upon to support the Government in all the most difficult votes.
Turning to the presidential election, Mr Kenny said Mr Mitchell’s stock had risen sharply. “In the past week there has been a substantial improvement in public [access] to the qualities of Gay Mitchell. This is a politician of very considerable experience, locally, nationally and internationally. He himself has begun to express his vision for the presidency if he is elected to that.”
In what was taken as a reference to the statement made by Dana Rosemary Scallon at the end of RTÉ's Prime Timedebate, Mr Kenny said: "I have not commented on difficulties other candidates in this election are having nor do I intend to."
Ms Loftus said she had lived 30 years in the constituency. “I have watched it grow and develop and prosper. I have played my part for Dublin West during all this time.”
She said she was sensitive to the circumstances that gave rise to the election. “I understand the sentiments and feeling and emotion of Brian Lenihan’s family. I understand and respect that.”
Mr Nulty is regarded by bookmakers as the favourite to win the election, based on Labour having won over one-quarter of first preference votes in the last election.
