Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Second, those elections were primarily about local issues. I accept the popularity of the Government was a factor in them. The Taoiseach may not be aware, because he was not in touch with people during the course of the recent election campaign, that the elections on Friday were not about local or European issues, they were about the state of the economy and the Government's mismanagement of it. They amounted to a referendum on the Government and the people rejected it.

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