A FIANNA FÁIL candidate has said an individual or group stole an advertising trailer she is using in the run up to the general election and placed it in a dangerous spot on a road.
Aoife Byrne, who is running in Wexford, said moving the trailer was someone’s idea of “high jinks” and “could have caused an accident”.
It was left on the New Line Road in a position where drivers had to cross a continuous white line to pass it out.
Byrne said it was removed as soon as her campaign team became aware of its location. She said the axle of the trailer was broken, and it had a flat tyre.
“I do accept it should have been secured better. I or my team would never intentionally cause a hazard on the road in order to gain support.
My advertising trailer was moved and abandoned in a dangerous spot on the New Line Road to make it seem my campaign team had no respect for drivers or road safety. This is not the case.
“I sincerely want to apologise for any distress caused.”
The incident happened last Thursday. Byrne said the trailer was on the road for about an hour until her campaign team removed it around 1.30pm.
She denied claims the trailer was left there overnight.
I feel this issue has been dragged out over the last week to score political points, not as a result of road safety concerns.
Byrne told TheJournal.ie she removed her posts about the incident from social media as she had been “trolled nightly” mainly by people from outside Wexford who are “clearly supporting other parties” and “have no interest in listening to the facts”.
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