LABOUR WILL apply to move the writ for the Dublin South byelection in the Dáil next week in an effort to highlight what it contends are unjust delays in filling vacant Dáil seats.
Party leader Éamon Gilmore said yesterday that it was time for the byelection to be held. Mr Gilmore said that delays in holding byelections following the death of Fianna Fáil TD Séamus Brennan and subsequently, the resignation of Fine Gael TD George Lee had left the constituency underrepresented for a combined period of 16 months.
Traditionally, the writ to move a byelection has been in the gift only of the party which held the seat.
Mr Lee, the former RTÉ economics correspondent, resigned in February this year, having been elected in June 2009 in a byelection which was occasioned by the death of Mr Brennan in July 2008.
The only declared candidate for Dublin South is the Labour Senator Alex White, who was the runner-up to Mr Lee in last year’s byelection. Neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael has selected candidates as yet.
Mr Gilmore said yesterday that it was not acceptable in a democratic society to have three Dáil seats vacant with no indication that they would be filled.
The other two vacancies are in Donegal South West (since the election of Pat the Cope Gallagher to the European Parliament in June 2008) and Waterford, where Martin Cullen resigned earlier this year for health reasons.
The Government has given tentative indications but no confirmation that all three byelections would be held together, towards the end of 2010.
Mr Gilmore said it was now essential that Labour and the other Opposition parties focus their attention back on the record.
“Events this week again showed the skewed priorities of this Government.
“On Wednesday, the chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank admitted to an Oireachtas committee that the lion’s share of the €22 billion of taxpayers’ money that Fianna Fáil had put into the bank would never been seen again.
“On the same day, the Government announced that it was putting another €250 million of taxpayers’ money into the EBS.
“Because attention was focused elsewhere, neither of these developments received the public and media attention that they merited,” Mr Gilmore said.