TAOISEACH Simon Harris has blasted Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s headline grabbing general election bid and declared: “He’s not a celebrity, he’s a criminal.”
The Taoiseach started day six of the election campaign in Dublin Central today where he first had a cup of coffee in the Bua cafe – meeting co-owners Bud Cotter and Neil Mulhern – before taking to the trail with local candidate Paschal Donohoe.
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The Public Expenditure Minister takes on Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald in the hotly contested constituency that also includes Neasa Hourigan of the Greens, Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats, Labour Senator Marie Sherlock, right wing candidate Malachy Steenson and ex-MEP Clare Daly.
However, gangland boss The Monk’s declaration that he is planning to run in this constituency has dominated the headlines with some furious at his bid for the Dail.
Taoiseach Simon Harris today slammed the veteran mobster as a criminal and warned people not to treat him like a celebrity.
Speaking outside the Boar’s Head pub, the Taoiseach said: “I think it’s important that we don’t treat this individual like some sort of minor celebrity.
“This is a person who has brought misery and criminality to this Capital city. He’s not a celebrity, he’s a criminal.”
The Monk was arrested in recent weeks in Spain on money laundering charges but managed to pay €100,000 bail and was released from custody.
He confirmed his plan to try take a Dail seat in the election after landing at Dublin Airport this week telling our reporter: “Any seat will do me!”
Constituency rival Paschal Donohoe today said he wants the constituency to “put the days of organised crime behind us” and is urging voters to remember the impact it has had on the area in recent years.
He said: “We want to send out a clear message regarding the impact of crime and organised crime and the harm that it does.
“I am making a very positive argument about how we can move forward and move forward to a future in which the awful, awful damage that drugs and organised crime has done to the people that I am lucky enough to represent so we can lessen that and put it behind us.
“Which is why this particular election in Dublin Central has added importance.”
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald also hit out at the Monk at a press conference today when she was asked about her constituency rival.
She said: “I roundly condemn Gerry Hutch or anybody else who is involved in crime and in particular those that bring the misery and the heartache of drug addiction, drug enslavement, drug debt and all of the violence that stems from that.”
She added: “If he qualifies to run for election that is his business but crime and criminality and the feeling of not being safe in our city, low level anti-social behaviour is a reality right across this city.
“And by the way those parties in government have not got to grips with it. It is a disgrace what’s going on in Dublin’s inner city and everybody who lives in the inner city knows that.”
Inside Simon Harris’ political & personal life
SIMON Harris is the current leader of the Fine Gael political party in Ireland.
Wicklow TD Harris took over the position after former party leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced he was stepping down in March of 2024.
Taking over the helm as Taoiseach in April, Harris became the youngest person ever to hold the job – at 37.
Harris was first elected as a TD in 2011 and went on to act as a Junior Minister in the Department of Finance from 2014 before being thrust into the role of Minister for Health when Fine Gael came into power in 2016.
Unlike his predecessors and the other leaders in the Dail, Simon grew up in a non-political family.
He went to a public school, and admitted that he was an “accidental politician” after being inspired into public life by a desire to help his younger brother, who was diagnosed with autism when they were children.
He said: “In many ways, I’m an accidental politician. I ended up in politics when my brother was born with autism and I stood as a moody teenager, and started campaigning in Wicklow, saying there has to be a better way of providing educational supports for people with autism.”
Behind the politics, Simon is also a husband and a father, sharing two children with his wife Caoimhe.
Harris got down and one knee at their home in Co Wicklow and proposed in July 2016 after the couple had been together for seven years.
The couple welcomed their first child, Saoirse, in January 2019, when he was Minister for Health, followed by their son, Cillian, in 2021.
Simon previously opened up on how being a dad influenced his beliefs.
He said: “I would have been very aware of the challenges and difficulties that people could face and the huge journeys people go through in relation to IVF, surrogacy, miscarriage. Thankfully we were blessed and we didn’t experience any of those things.”
Former Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall turned State witness against The Monk in the trial of the Regency Hotel shooting of Kinahan cartel mobster David Byrne.
The Monk was later acquitted of the murder and walked free from court.
