Some supporters of Independent candidate Catherine Connolly have been conducting a negative campaign against Heather Humphreys particularly in relation to her religion and family, senior Fine Gael Ministers have claimed.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill both rejected claims from Opposition leaders that Ms Humphreys’ campaign was using smear and “Trumpian” tactics by attacking Ms Connolly.
Mr Heydon and Ms Carroll MacNeill were speaking during a canvass of morning commuters at St Stephen’s Green Luas stop on Wednesday in the closing days of the election campaign.
Asked if they regretted the negative tenor of the Fine Gael campaign, both Ministers said they did not accept that portrayal and that it was the Opposition who were involved in negative campaigning.
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“I absolutely regret the fact that there has been so much sectarian content about Heather Humphreys and her family online,” said Mr Heydon. “I don’t know Catherine Connolly’s family circumstances. I don’t care. It’s not part of it, but I haven’t read anything about it on social media yet.
“I read some very sinister comments about Heather Humphreys, her family, her culture, her tradition. It is wedge politics at its worst.”
He said most of the claims of a smear referred to a video critical of Ms Connolly that Fine Gael issued on Sunday.
“I absolutely stand over that as a video that showed Catherine Connolly’s words, her statements in the Dáil, calling out criminal activity on banks when it was clear and evident, even though it took her seven weeks to actually admit it, that she worked for financial institutions,” he said.
Ms Caroll MacNeill contended that the issues Fine Gael had raised were ones of substance.
“They are issues about making disclosures to the Dáil before you speak on something. It is certainly something that I’ve done, it’s something that Jim O’Callaghan has done. In respect of defamation, he very clearly stood up and said, I work in defamation in that area, I represent clients on both sides ... That’s what you do in the Dáil, it’s what you do in councils.”
Asked about the comment by Conor Deegan, a member of the band Fontaines DC, describing Heather Humphreys as having “a mind colonised by Britain”, Mr Heydon replied: “It is concerning in terms of the context around what people consider to be a right approach for a united Ireland.”
