Fine Gael intensified its attacks on Catherine Connolly on Monday as both candidates in the presidential election prepare for the final television debate of the campaign on RTÉ on Tuesday evening.
Despite a backlash from several quarters, including pointed remarks from Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, Fine Gael continued to accuse Ms Connolly of “hypocrisy” for appearing for banks in home repossession cases while being critical of the banks and campaigning for an end to evictions.
Fine Gael circulated reports from local media in Galway when Ms Connolly, then a city councillor, was fiercely critical of the housing crisis, the then government and the banks.
The party said this was a time when she was employed as a barrister by banks in home repossession cases. Ms Connolly has said she did “all kinds of work” but refused to give any details of the cases she was involved in.
RM Block
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill questioned why Ms Connolly had not declared her interest in such cases when she spoke about the subject in the Dáil.
However, some backbenchers are privately questioning the aggressive stance from Fine Gael in the face of a seemingly near-insurmountable gap. One argued that “there’s enough division in Irish politics” already, adding that a video put up by Fine Gael in relation to Ms Connolly’s barrister work was “an American-style piece and it’s unsavoury – and we shouldn’t be doing that”.
In an interview with her local radio station Shannonside Northern Sound, Heather Humphreys said: “I am not attacking Catherine’s work as a barrister, I am highlighting her hypocrisy as a politician.
“She criticised the same banks that she repossessed homes for. I’m pointing out the hypocrisy of working for the banks in the courts to repossess houses and saying something different in the council chamber in Galway or in the Dáil chamber.”
But Ms Connolly hit back at Fine Gael, and claimed the party was deploying these tactics because it was “absolutely terrified” of her campaign.
“I think they’re absolutely terrified, and that they would resort to such tactics just reflects on their terror and their fear of the change in Ireland. And they are utterly out of touch,” Ms Connolly said.
She called on Ms Humphreys to withdraw comments that the Fine Gael candidate had made over the weekend, when Ms Humphreys implied that Ms Connolly had made money out of people’s misfortune. Ms Connolly said home repossessions after the financial crash were the consequence of government policies.
“I saw packed courts, I saw the consequences of government policies, saving the banks. I saw people being evicted from their houses, directly consequent on government policy. I saw county registrars bent over backwards not to put people out of their houses, and finding every possible way to avoid that,” she said.
“This Government and previous governments have to look at what they did. And people had to emigrate, people committed suicide, directly consequent on government policy.”
On the campaign trail Ms Humphreys was put under pressure regarding actions taken by Cootehill credit union, where she was a manager. She said such actions were taken as a matter of last resort and that nobody lost their house arising from them while she worked in the credit union.
Ms Connolly is entering the final days of the campaign as the clear front-runner. While Ms Humphreys said that while she is the “underdog” she “absolutely” still believes she can win the presidential election.
Ms Connolly, meanwhile, has described how she believes she represents a “movement” that exists beyond her.
“And so this movement will continue after me, and I’m delighted that I have united people together across parties and none to stand together,” Ms Connolly said.
