2011 General Election
At the 2011 general election, Senator Ivana Bacik was Gilmore's running mate in the Dun Laoghaire constituency. Gilmore topped the poll but Bacik was not elected.
In February 2011 Gilmore said the Government's decision to postpone injecting a further €10 billion into the banks until after the election shows the bailout deal must be renegotiated. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan postponed injecting a further €10 billion into the banks until after the election – missing a key deadline under the EU-IMF bailout. "I find it quite amazing that a Fianna Fáil government, that tells us that we can’t renegotiate the IMF deal, can unilaterally take one portion of the deal and decide they are going to postpone implementing it because there happens to be an election," he said.
Gilmore led Labour to the best electoral performance in the party's 99-year history at the 2011 general election. The party won 37 seats, its most ever. It did especially well in Dublin, taking 18 seats to become the largest party in the capital.
Read more about this topic: Eamon Gilmore
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or election:
“You have lived longer than I have and perhaps may have formed a different judgment on better grounds; but my observations do not enable me to say I think integrity the characteristic of wealth. In general I believe the decisions of the people, in a body, will be more honest and more disinterested than those of wealthy men.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The election makes me think of a story of a man who was dying. He had only two minutes to live, so he sent for a clergyman and asked him, “Where is the best place to go to?” He was undecided about it. So the minister told him that each place had its advantages—heaven for climate, and hell for society.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)