Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly was scrambling last night to explain her claim to be pro-European Union after being unable to recall any instance where she supported EU treaties.
Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys sought to create a wedge with voters on the issue, claiming in yesterday’s RTÉ debate that Ms Connolly ‘voted against every European treaty’.
Ms Humphreys said the Independent candidate would damage Ireland’s diplomatic efforts, stating: ‘You insulted our allies… France, UK, Germany and the US. That doesn’t go without consequences… How are you going to talk to them? Will they want to talk to you? You have insulted them.’
Heather Humphreys. Pic: Conor O’Mearain/P00L/PA/RollingNews.ie
Ms Connolly said she was ‘pro-European’ but, speaking to journalists immediately after RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week debate, was unable to recount a single EU treaty she supported.
An analysis of Ms Connolly’s public statements shows she opposed the Nice, Lisbon and Fiscal treaties. Ms Connolly said she recalls campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty on two issues. She said: ‘One was the military-industrial complex and the direction we were going, and the other was the blatant neoliberal ideology that sets out the price of everything and the value of nothing.’
The Independent TD added that she has ‘no recollection of canvassing against any other treaty, but just voting’. However, she did campaign against the Fiscal Treaty in 2012, which introduced fiscal stability measures in the wake of the financial crash, and publicly opposed the Nice Treaty in 2001.
Catherine Connolly. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
The latter treaty reformed the institutional structure of the EU to withstand its eastward expansion, but voters in Ireland rejected it. Anti-treaty campaigners warned Ireland risked being bossed around by larger European states, having to subsidise poorer applicant states and having the Army forced to take part in Nato-backed peacekeeping operations.
It was rejected in June 2001, but passed in a second vote in 2002 after the Government secured guarantees on military neutrality.
In an opinion piece in the Galway Advertiser in May 2012, Ms Connolly insisted the Fiscal Treaty would ‘tie the hands of any subsequent government for our lifetime and that of our children and grandchildren – a complete undermining of our democratic process’.
However, it is her comments about the EU during a 2016 interview that will cause her the most damage.
In an interview on Virgin Media after the 2016 Brexit vote, Ms Connolly described the UK’s decision to leave the bloc as ‘the first step in exposing the EU’. She continued: ‘I think it [the EU] is exposed again now, and I think it’s open for us to grab that opportunity and not let the right have the narrative or tell the story.
‘It’s up to us to grasp it. How could you possibly say that the EU is good as it stands when we have a country where we have to get permission to build homes for our people?’
Catherine Connolly. Fran Veale
Ms Connolly yesterday insisted she ‘never objected’ to the building of housing despite twice advocating against student accommodation developments in Galway. In 2010, as a Galway City councillor, she lodged observations with An Bord Pleanála (ABP) against a proposed development of student accommodation and four commercial units in the city.
Local residents on the Rahoon Road argued that traffic congestion was making it hard to exit and enter their estates and that another new entrance should not be permitted. In a submission to ABP, Ms Connolly said she was supporting residents and believed the development was ‘against the letter and the spirit of the Galway City Development Plan’.
There was also a short-term objective to develop and upgrade Millar’s Lane for passive amenity. Galway City Council had granted planning permission for the demolition of one house and its replacement by two separate blocks of mixed development.
Catherine Connolly. Pic: Tom Honan
Ms Connolly said the proposed development would impact on Millar’s Lane, a protected amenity under the Galway City Development Plan. Ultimately, ABP granted permission for the apartments to be built despite objections from residents that Ms Connolly supported.
While she was Mayor of Galway, Ms Connolly used her casting vote to block a proposal to move secondary school ‘The Bish’ to a site on the University of Galway campus.
There were plans to turn the school site into accommodation for 880 students as part of the land swap, but the council deemed this unsuitable. Connacht Tribune reports that at the time, it noted that Ms Connolly faced accusations of a conflict of interest that should have led to her excusing herself from the vote as her husband worked in the school.
The school is located just a short walk from Ms Connolly’s home in the Claddagh area. The move by the school, also known as St Joseph’s, is now going ahead on lands at the university. Speaking after her debate yesterday, Ms Connolly insisted she has ‘never objected to housing’.
She said: ‘I might have put in submissions where I expressed my concerns, sharing the concerns of the residents. I certainly share the concerns of residents in Galway in relation to where certain student accommodation was going.’
When it was put to her that making a submission to ABP was akin to an ‘objection’, Ms Connolly insisted that it was not.
Ms Connolly has a sizeable lead over Ms Humphreys, ahead of polling day on October 24. A Business Post/Red C poll, carried out from October 1 to 7, put Ms Connolly on 36%, Ms Humphreys on 25%, and Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin on 12%. Mr Gavin withdrew from the race on the evening of October 5.
Ms Connolly claimed Fine Gael is ‘worried’, and that this was ‘very, very evident’ from comments made by former minister Ivan Yates, who said the party needs to ‘smear the bejaysus’ out of Ms Connolly. She added: ‘I haven’t heard Fine Gael distance themselves from those comments.’
Asked if she believes Ms Humphreys, who said she is not involved in a smear campaign, Ms Connolly said: ‘Heather has said that, but today there was a lot of allegations against me without any basis whatsoever. They’re going down the road of throwing as much as they can.’
During the debate, Ms Connolly rejected claims from Ms Humphreys that she is not pro-business or pro-Europe and described allegations she had insulted allies of Ireland as ‘inaccurate’.
Ms Connolly said: ‘I have been pro-business all my life. I’m absolutely pro-European. Asking questions of the military-industrial complex and the direction that the compass is going in Europe, it’s not the same as anti-European. I’m a committed European, and a committed European asks questions.’