{"id":118888,"date":"2025-10-13T08:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/118888\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T08:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:26:07","slug":"catherine-connolly-calls-out-shocking-fine-gael-tactics-but-is-unclear-on-eu-position-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/118888\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly calls out \u2018shocking\u2019 Fine Gael tactics, but is unclear on EU position \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential candidates Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys clashed on the EU<\/a>, the triple lock and election campaign<\/a> \u201csmears\u201d on Sunday as the race for the presidency entered its last full week.<\/p>\n

In a more confrontational encounter than previous debates, the candidates expressed opposing viewpoints on RT\u00c9<\/a> radio\u2019s This Week, with Ms Connolly<\/a> accusing Fine Gael<\/a> of \u201cthe politics of fear \u2026 the politics of smear\u201d.<\/p>\n

Later, speaking to journalists outside RT\u00c9 studios, Ms Connolly said the \u201csmears\u201d directed at her were \u201cshocking\u201d. She added: \u201cToday, there was a lot of allegations against me without any basis whatsoever, so I think they\u2019re going down the road of throwing as much as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the debate, Ms Humphreys<\/a> said her rival for the \u00c1ras had never voted for the EU, something Ms Connolly denied.<\/p>\n

Asked afterwards how she had voted in EU treaty referendums, Ms Connolly said she \u201cprobably\u201d had voted for them, but could not say offhand how she had voted in a number of referendums on EU treaties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have to think back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said she had taken an active role in the campaign against the Lisbon Treaty. She did this because of the \u201cmilitary industrial complex and the direction we were going\u201d, as well as the \u201cblatant neoliberal ideology that sets out the price of everything and the value of nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have no recollection of canvassing against any other treaty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pressed on how she had voted, Ms Connolly said: \u201cI\u2019d say I voted for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She could not recall which treaties she voted in favour of, saying: \u201cI\u2019m answering the question as best I can . . . I can\u2019t remember ever canvassing against a treaty, ever, so I imagine I voted for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, material circulated by Fine Gael subsequently showed Ms Connolly spoke out against the Lisbon Treaty, the Nice Treaty and the Fiscal Compact Treaty. <\/p>\n

Asked about past EU treaties at a trade union event on Sunday night, Ms Connolly said she regretted \u201cnot being active\u201d in other campaigns against EU treaties.<\/p>\n

She insisted she was \u201ca committed European\u201d, but opposed aspects of EU policies. \u201cWe have to allow questions to be put and debated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly\u2019s campaign did not respond to questions from The Irish Times about how she voted in EU referendums since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

In Sunday\u2019s debate, which was moderated by presenter David McCullagh, both candidates promised to speak up for people if elected president. <\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said she would be a president who is \u201cunafraid to speak out\u201d, though she acknowledged \u201cpolicies are decided by government, I\u2019ve no problem with that . . . the people decide in an election who makes the decisions and I have no problem with that\u201d.<\/p>\n

But she added that people want a president who gives them a sense of hope and \u201creflects their values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys defended her record of assisting Lucia O\u2019Farrell, whose son Shane was killed by a hit-and-run driver while out on bail. The O\u2019Farrell family received a State apology earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry if Lucia thinks I didn\u2019t do enough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys said she had \u201cnever objected to a housing development\u201d, while some TDs had.<\/p>\n

Asked by journalists after the debate if she had ever objected to housing, Ms Connolly said she had \u201cnever objected to housing\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, she added: \u201cI might have put in submissions that expressed my concerns, sharing the concerns of residents. That\u2019s over my lifetime in politics . . . I certainly shared the concerns of residents in Galway in relation to where certain student accommodation was put.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential candidates Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys clashed on the EU, the triple lock and election campaign \u201csmears\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,1921,13,14,72675,6,72676,11,12,15,16,5,72677,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-118888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-fine-gael-presidential-candidate-at-rte-for-this-week","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-independent-presidential-candidate-and-heather-humphreys","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-presidential-debate-hosted-by-david-mccullagh","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}