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LAST UPDATE | 19 Oct
FINE GAEL HAS been accused of using the “Trump playbook” as it focuses its presidential campaign on casting aspersions on Catherine Connolly’s previous work as a barrister.
This evening, Fine Gael posted a video to its X account where it highlights its questions on the presidential frontrunner’s former career.
Headlined ‘Catherine Connolly’s hypocrisy’, the almost three-minute long video shows some of Connolly’s Dáil contributions on housing and the banks.
It follows comments by Heather Humphreys in the Sunday Independent where she said she “never tried to make money out of people’s misfortune”, referring to Connolly’s time working as a barrister during the economic crash.
Catherine Connolly's hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/46ZE30e6eY
— Fine Gael (@FineGael) October 19, 2025
Connolly said the remarks were “a new low”, as Fine Gael Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee weighed in with a similar view to her party colleague.
Both Connolly and the Bar Council of Ireland have repeatedly highlighted the cab-rank rule.
Barristers operate under the rule which means they are precluded from refusing instructions on the ground that the nature of the case, or the conduct, opinions or beliefs of a client may be unacceptable to themselves.
The Bar Council said this rule is “central to trust in the Irish legal system and the rule of law”.
Social Democrats’ TD Jennifer Whitmore said such campaigning is “imported straight from the US” and “not what people want to see”.
“It’s the Republican and Trump playbook on campaigning and it’s a very worrying departure,” she told The Journal.
“Stop and take a look at the bigger picture, Irish people want to see a positive campaign – this is nasty and dirty campaigning which is only coming from one side.
“Fine Gael are under huge pressure at the moment because they’re running a very bad campaign, but Irish people don’t want to see this in their presidential campaign – they want to a vision. All we’ve heard from Fine Gael is talking about Catherine and not what Heather’s values are or what her vision is.
“It’s disingenuous too because the Bar Council has come out and said that barristers must be independent and must be of their principles and values.”
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty similarly said Fine Gael were “scraping the bottom of the barrel” with “smears” against Connolly.
“It’s Fine Gael who refused to build public housing as they rolled out the red carpet for vulture funds,” Doherty said. “It’s Fine Gael who pushed home ownership out of the reach of an entire generation.
“Ordinary people screwed while vulture funds made obscene profits. Young people, their parents and grandparents will remember that next Friday.”
Speaking in Galway today, Connolly said she had been “over and over” the issue, adding: “For a candidate for the presidency to misuse that in the way she has, it’s just a new low.”
At the Fine Gael candidate’s first stop of the day, the Intermediate Football Championship Final in Athlone, she too was asked about the quotes.
Humphreys reiterated her stance, saying that Connolly “was working for UK banks” before she went in to politics, whereas she was working in a credit union “actually helping people to stay in their houses”.
In Co Kildare, Taoiseach Micheál Martin was decidedly more veiled in his criticism of Connolly.
The Taoiseach was speaking at Fianna Fáil’s annual Wolfe Tone commemoration event in Bodenstown. Speaking on Wolfe Tone’s legacy, Martin emphasised the importance of Ireland’s position in the European Union and the threat posed by Russia.
Continuing, the Taoiseach said: “We need to start calling-out people who say “Oh, but I’m pro-EU” as they constantly announce and reannounce the supposed end of Irish sovereignty.
“You’re not pro-EU if you stand against every Treaty which has built the Union over the last quarter of a century,” he said, a frequent talking point of Humphreys’s in her debates against Connolly.
“You’re not pro-EU if you claim it’s controlled by a wealthy elite and can never find a positive word to say about it. You’re not pro-EU if you constantly say that it’s destroying our neutrality and is in the hands of a military-industrial complex.”
Connolly has used the term “military-industrial complex” on many occasions. In the first presidential debate, she used it on five occasions.
Martin said that Ireland will hold the Presidency of the Council for the first time in 12 years next year, where it will be “central to setting the agenda”. He said the position of his government is that Ireland is pro-Europe.
Connolly has previously said there was a narrative being spread that she was not pro-Europe or pro-business, both of which are “absolutely incorrect”.
“I’m absolutely pro European, asking questions of the military industrial complex and the direction that the compass is going in Europe. It’s not the same as anti European. I’m a committed European and a committed European asks questions,” the TD said.
The Irish public are approaching the final few days before polling day on 24 October. The final presidential debate is taking place on RTÉ One on Tuesday.
Recent polling has placed Connolly strokes ahead of Humphreys after Jim Gavin’s exit from the race, despite Fianna Fáil supporters defecting to support Humphreys.
In recent days, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has announced that he will be voting for Humphreys, as has former presidential candidate Seán Gallagher.
The Government chief whip Minister of State Mary Butler said this afternoon she will be voting for Humphreys, as has Micheál Martin, although he has said this is not the official position of the party.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton and Press Association
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