LABOUR'S EUROPEAN election candidate for Ireland South was sharply criticised during a Labour youth conference debate on discrimination against Travellers.
Paul Dillon (Meath East) received a sustained round of applause when he criticised Senator Alan Kelly because of his involvement "in a public meeting in Tipperary South in a housing estate after Travellers got a house in the estate and local residents kicked up blue murder".
Mr Kelly was not at the conference but when contacted about it he said: "[Mr Dillon] has never spoken to me and I don't know why he's criticising me. I know the area he's talking about and I was trying to find an appropriate solution. In that scenario there wasn't going to be too many winners." He said he had never made any discriminatory comments in any capacity and the criticism "is certainly not a fair reflection in any way of the factual situation".
The motion, adopted without any opposing speakers, condemned "attempts from politicians and others to exploit tensions in communities and seek to use reactionary comments against Travellers for political means".
The conference accepted a proposal by Graham Ó Maonaigh (Dublin South) for 24-hour opening of pubs and nightclubs, reinstating a policy that was in place for two years until 2006.
The conference also adopted a motion to send a letter of congratulations to US president-elect Barack Obama, which also called for a full withdrawal of US troops from Iraq; the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay and all centres of extraordinary rendition; the end of the Cuban blockade; and respect for Venezuala's right to self-determination.
One of the most contentious debates was about abortion and a motion, which was accepted, criticised the SDLP for its campaign against the extension of Britain's 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland, and called for "free, safe and legal abortion in Ireland".
Melissa Clancy, a UCD student nurse, opposed legalising abortion. She said the party had opposed the re-running of the Lisbon referendum. "The party is standing by the people on the Lisbon issue, so why not on abortion as well?"
