AS THE GENERAL election nears, candidates have gone on the offence to try and discredit their competitors in the hopes of securing a seat in the Dáil Éireann.

In a live broadcast from the Hodson Bay Hotel in Co Roscommon today, five candidates in the Longford-Westmeath constituency followed suit, with rows erupting between Independent candidate Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy, and Fine Gael’s Peter Burke.

Also on the programme, Saturday with Colm O Mongáin, were Sinn Féin’s Sorca Clarke, and Independent Ireland’s Paul Hogan. Both Moran and Hogan are councillors for the Athlone-Moate district. Troy, Burke, and Clarke are incumbent TDs.

When asked about immigration and housing issues in the area, Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy said that there needed to be greater engagement between the community and Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman. 

Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran interrupted, saying: “Robert, you’re in government. You’re in government.” Moran said that the issue of immigration had come up on the doors during the local elections in June, particularly in relation the proposed centre of asylum seekers in the area. 

“You come on today, talking about pausing it. That’s not right. You’re in government. You have to stick to the task. Your system of doing what’s required in relation to immigration is failure – just like housing. You’ve not a grip of what’s going on in the country.”

Troy responded to the comment made, saying, “If I could briefly respond, I’ve had very little time to speak today, so if I could respond to the charge that’s made to me, Minister Moran has been in -”

“I’m not a minister,” Moran corrected.

“Former Minister Moran was in government for four years. He talks about housing. This government built more houses in the five years that we were in than the last two governments combined. Combined,” Troy said. 

“You must’ve bought them all, Robert,” Moran replied.

“That’s a low dig, Kevin, and it’s beneath you,” Troy said, before host Colm O Mongáin cut in.

Later on in the programme, when Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke was outlining some of Fine Gael’s commitments in terms of applying means-testing for asylum seekers, as well as accommodation issues, another spat began.

“We don’t want anyone to spend a day in a tent, and that’s what we’re trying to get away from this model to have state infrastructure to house people. We don’t want anyone in a tent,” Burke said.

“You’re at that for four years now,” Moran said.

“Kevin, you seem to be just throwing in shots here. If you let people talk or articulate. What Kevin doesn’t -”

“I’m just like Michael O’Leary,” Moran replied, referencing Burke’s controversial endorsement by the Ryanair boss at a campaign event last week, in which O’Leary made several comments disparaging teachers.

Shooting back, Burke said: “Slogans won’t have substance and won’t deliver solutions. So you’re good at slogans, you’re good at talk, but you’re not good at delivery. I think Athlone knows that quite well.”

At the end of the programme, as ‘Boxer’ Moran decried the lack of available transport in the area, and pointed to the government as being the reason behind inadequate infrastructure, Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy piped up. “Kevin was with us one time, and he was supporting Fine Gael another time.”

Moran was previously a Fianna Fáil councillor, from 1999 until his shock resignation in 2011. 

“Robert, I’m a long time gone from that! Aren’t you Fine Gael!” Moran said.