Enda Kenny forced to accept ‘public anger’ as government is lashed at the polls

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and his deputy Eamon Gilmore have vowed to take the lessons on board after voters kicked them where it hurts on the double.

Coalition partners Fine Gael and Labor were rejected in huge numbers in both the European and local elections.

As results continue to pour in, Gilmore is under increasing pressure to remain as Labor Party leader after annihilation in both elections.

And Fine Gael boss Kenny has admitted that his government and his party must heed the message from the count centres across the country.

The Irish Independent reports that Kenny has accepted ‘public anger and frustration’ expressed at the polling stations and reflected across the country.

He said: “It’s not a good day for Government and it has been an especially hard day for Labor Party leader Eamon Gilmore.

“The electorate has told the Government that we need to do better. We are committed to addressing the concerns and fears of older people, those with medical disabilities and hard pressed taxpayers who have been forced to make sacrifices throughout the recession.

“We will redouble our efforts over the next two years to prove politics can actually work.

“And the end of the day it’s all about our people. They have spoken and the consequences of their decisions will continue for the next couple of years.”

As Fine Gael support dropped to 24 per cent in the local elections and to 23 per cent in the European vote, Kenny acknowledged that the government parties had lost out to Sinn Fein and the Independents.

He added: “You can argue with the decision but you cannot argue with the people.”

Bad and all as Kenny felt when the first votes were counted on Saturday, his deputy Eamon Gilmore was left to fight for his political future with Labor set to lose 70 per cent of its councillors and all of it’s European deputies.

Gilmore is under real threat but insisted the vote will not affect his future as party leader.

He insisted: “There is no question about my leadership of the party after these results. I intend to continue to discharge my duties as leader of the Labor Party.”

The Dublin deputy added: “The party has to pull together and work together following this hammering. The Coalition needs to renew the Government.

“The people of the country have sent a very loud and clear message to the Government and indeed to the Labour Party. People want to see things done differently from now on.”

Labor Party members are sure to question Gilmore’s leadership after the election results sink in and the voters ‘shellacked’ the party according to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, tipped to lead a heave against the leader.

Burton insisted Gilmore had her ‘confidence’ despite the results and said the issues at hand were wider than the leadership of the party. But she did warn than a review is needed.

She said: ““Eamon Gilmore is the elected leader of the Labour Party and of course I have confidence in Eamon Gilmore but it is much wider than that.

“The issues are far wider than simply the issue of one person or personality.

“I think the issues go much wider because they affect, in particular, policy and the way business is done. Labor will be looking at and listening to what the public has said very closely.

“The successes we have had in reviving the economy and getting people back to work haven’t been enough in terms of what people have felt in their pocket. We have to think about that and examine it and look at the policy area and in particular the way business is done.

“US president Barack Obama put it well after the mid-term elections when he used the term shellacking.

“The electorate have given the Labour Party a shellacking and we have to reflect and examine that and think about that.”