FG minister accused of 'hijacking’ Limerick city council Green Leaf event

FINE Gael has once again been accused of electioneering during a non-political event, with local Green Party councillor Sean Hartigan criticising Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan.

Just a week after Fianna Fail asked the Standards in Public Office commission to probe what party leader Micheal Martin claimed was Fine Gael’s “abuse” of State events, Cllr Hartigan felt compelled to leave a local event at which Mr O’Donovan was speaking.

He said the Limerick TD “hijacked” the European Green Leaf City award at City Hall, in a bid to “try to discredit the Green Party”.

As a result, the City East member left in disgust.

“He was making out that Fine Gael were greener than green. He said they had fixed the economy and were now going to fix the environment. He took every possible dig he could at the Greens. He was saying things like we are not going to force people to travel on the trains, we’re not going to stop people cutting turf. It was blatantly obvious that it was dig after dig at the Greens,” Cllr Hartigan told The Leader.

The first-term councillor claimed that some local authority staff followed him out to apologise.

“They didn’t expect him to turn it into a party political broadcast. To be honest, it showed a certain amount of desperation on his part. He must see The Green party as a threat to his own seat in his own constituency,” he added.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had been accused of “abusing” a State launch of the National Broadband Plan by making political attacks.

Mr O’Donovan did not return requests for comment.