Brid Smith calls on Brian Hayes to resign as Minister

As nominations close today Brid Smith, the People Before Profit candidate for the Dublin Euro constituency, has accused Brian Hayes of breaking the spirit of EU regulations with his EU candidacy.

Commenting Cllr. Smith said: “In rule 5 of the Second Schedule of the European Parliamentary Election Act 1997, it states quite categorically that government ministers are not eligible to stand as candidates. If Brian Hayes looked at Form 8P2 concerning these regulation he will find on Section 8(e) the specific rule.

“I assume that the reason for this rule is that one cannot be involved in running both a serious election campaign and ongoing government business at the same time. Brian Hayes should therefore do the honourable thing and resign as a Minister of State.

“To be fully compliant with the regulation he should have done it before the nomination – but he could at least honour its spirit by doing so now. If he does not, I can only assume that he has looked at the figures in the most recent opinion poll and is worried that he will be may lose the EU seat and wants to ensure that he has his ministerial perks as compensation.”