Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is to contact the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg in a bid to resolve a row about comments on "vested interests".
Congress has asked that the line on the party’s website and election material referring to Fine Gael taking on the “vested interests including builders, developers, bankers and trade unions” be removed.
Mr Begg said he was surprised and couldn’t understand it as congress has had quite “good relations with the party for many years”.
He said that he wrote to Mr Kenny and was still awaiting a response, pointing out that if the line meant a Fine Gael government would “enter into a prolonged period of confrontation” with the organisation then he had “a duty to bring that to the attention of our members.”
“I think that if you make a charge like that against what is the biggest civil society organisation on the island of Ireland you need to have some basis for making the charge otherwise you should withdraw it," Mr Begg said.
“I suspect this kind of language appeals very much to certain leafy suburbs in Dublin populated by the upper middle class…that’s all very well but congress has a responsibility to try to deal with every government. My request is it should be taken out of literature completely."
Mr Kenny later admitted while “some elements” of the Fine Gael party might not have a great connection with trade unions, he has “built a very good working relationship with David Begg”.
He said he is sorry if the comments on the website offended Mr Begg but a trade union has “a job to do and from that perspective they are a vested interest”.
Mr Kenny refused to say if the comments would be removed and pointed out that they did not appear in the party’s manifesto. “Political websites are one thing, our manifesto is our official programme…They are not in the manifesto and David will get his letter back,” he added.