PAUL GOGARTY, THE Lucan-based former TD best known for his expletive-laden outburst towards a Labour colleague in the wake of the financial crash, has been re-elected to the Dáil after a 13 year gap.
Gogarty, then a Green Party TD, was part of the Fianna Fáil-Greens coalition when he rounded on Emmet Stagg in a 2009 Dáil debate telling him:
“With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you deputy Stagg! Fuck you!”
The Greens were under intense pressure at the time and Gogarty, as his party’s education spokesperson, had been tasked with defending budget cuts in a debate.
The TD apologised straight away in the chamber, but added:
“I don’t like what has to be done, but I’m going to take the responsibility and get it on the chin and get the unpopularity and lose my seat because it is the only thing we can do to get this country out of the state we are in.”
The exchange quickly went viral.
Today is the 11th anniversary of one of the best videos to ever come out of Ireland.
— Cian Maher (@cianmaher0) December 11, 2020
"With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language - Fuck you Deputy Stagg! Fuck you!"https://t.co/BDiheMSLDT pic.twitter.com/RdRreMDusT
Gogarty, along with the rest of the Greens, lost his seat in the February 2011 election and left the party afterwards.
Despite parting ways with his former colleagues, he has continued to campaign on environmental matters as a councillor for South Dublin in the intervening years. Political observers in Dublin West, where he’s taken a seat this evening, said he had gained a reputation as a hard worker on local issues.
Aside from a brief detour into an attempted musical career under the stage name ‘His Sweet Surprise’, he’s been working as a full-time public representative since gaining his council seat in 2014, including a spell as Lord Mayor of the local authority.
Gogarty was elected alongside Fianna Fáil councillor Shane Moynihan tonight. Sinn Féin’s Eoin O Broin and Mark Ward took two seats in the five-seater with Emer Higgins of Fine Gael also retaining her seat. Gino Kenny of People Before Profit lost his seat, and the other Eoin O Broin, of the Social Democrats, just missed out.
“Firstly I’d like to thank all the people who had faith in me and re-elected me as a TD,” Gogarty said – adding that there would be “a lot of work to be done over the next five years”.
Asked whether he’d be minding his language a little more in the 34th Dáil, Gogarty just smiled and made a ‘lips sealed’ gesture.
Moynihan, who has been a councillor for Palmerstown-Fonthill since 2019 and also ran in the by-election that year that saw Mark Ward elected, said he was “humbled” by the win.
He reclaims the Fianna Fáil seat lost by former government chief whip John Curran in 2020.
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