Labour MEP wants Gilmore to step down as party leader
A Labour MEP has called on Eamon Gilmore to be replaced immediately as party leader.
Tipperary-based MEP Phil Prendergast says making Joan Burton the party's leader is the only way to save some of its seats in the European elections.
She was speaking as a new opinion poll showed a majority of Labour supporters unhappy with Mr Gilmore's performance as party leader.
Ms Prendergast told the Irish Independent that Mr Gilmore's leadership was in a "state of chronic inability" and said urgent action was needed if Labour was to salvage any of its European seats.
She's insisting that her comments aren't personally motivated, but says Mr Gilmore's current approach could be fatal if the results of new opinoin polls are to be believed.
Ms Prendergast scored just 4% in a weekend opinion poll in Ireland South, a score which would see Labour lose the seat originally won by Alan Kelly five years ago.
Her comments come as an opinion poll, also in the Irish Independent, shows just 18% of voters are satisfied with Mr Gilmore's leadership.
The Millward Brown poll of 1500 voters, taken last Tuesday and Wednesday, shows that less than half of Labour's own supporters are happy with how he is doing, and that only 6% of voters would support Labour in a general election.
