Presidential candidate Heather Humphreys has claimed that those who “speak out” against the “far left” get sued, after People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy initiated defamation proceedings against her.
Mr Murphy has begun legal proceedings against the Fine Gael candidate following remarks she made on RTÉ Radio 1 during a debate last weekend.
The remarks related to a 2014 protest in Jobstown against then tánaiste and Labour Party leader Joan Burton.
Mr Murphy and six other men were found not guilty of false imprisonment of Ms Burton and her adviser in a 2017 trial.
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“Here, he’s not going to put me off, and that’s it. That’s fine. He’s entitled to do it,” Ms Humphreys told journalists at a campaign event on a farm in Slane, Co Meath on Thursday.
Asked if she would be defending the defamation case, Ms Humphreys said: “Obviously I’ll be taking legal advice on it.”
“This is normal, like we know this. We know the far left, and we know that Sinn Féin, if you speak out, the next thing, you’re sued. And that’s the way it happens. It’s not going to put me off, and I’m going to plough on.”
Asked if facing a defamation claim during the campaign would undermine her claim that she could speak diplomatically as a president, Ms Humphreys said: “Absolutely not.”
Earlier on Thursday, Ms Humphreys had incorrectly claimed that Mr Murphy was Independent left-wing candidate Catherine Connolly’s campaign manager. Mr Murphy is a high-profile part of Ms Connolly’s campaign, but he clarified on social media on Thursday that Ms Connolly’s campaign manager is her parliamentary adviser Béibhinn O’Connor. “I’d say she is doing a pretty excellent job,” Mr Murphy said.
It emerged that Ms Humphreys was facing legal action the same day that it emerged that Ms Connolly is enjoying an impressive lead, with one week to go until the poll.
An Irish Times/Ipsos B & A poll published on Thursday showed Ms Humphreys trailing Ms Connolly, with support for the left wing candidate at 38 per cent, almost double Ms Humphreys’s 20 per cent. Ms Humphreys said she was “long enough in politics to know the real poll is the day of the election”. Ms Connolly said “I don’t think polls win elections” and “I’ll be canvassing every day until next Thursday”.
Ms Connolly said on Thursdayshe supports the European Union and has always been “constructively critical” of it. It came after comments that Ms Connolly made in 2016 after the Brexit referendum surfaced online. The TD said that she was “full of admiration” for Brexit voters and said the UK had “stood up and said we see the EU for what it is, or at least that’s what I’m taking out of it”.
On Thursday, Ms Connolly said her comments in relation to Brexit were about “the manner in which the electorate were being commented upon”.
“I was talking about the importance of democracy
“Whether I liked the result or not, that was a decision, a sovereign decision.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin chief whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has accused the Government of doing all it can to “block accountability”, after the Dáil business committee decided that the House will not sit next Thursday and for a half-day on Wednesday. Mr Mac Lochlainn claimed it was a “blatant attempt to silence the Opposition and to avoid scrutiny ahead of the presidential vote next Friday, October 24th”.
He said the move “removes the usual time for votes on Wednesday evening to avoid votes that could embarrass them ahead of the presidential vote.”
