Following on from Verona Murphy’s decision last week to withdraw from an RTE Radio debate, she withdrew from yet another opportunity for debate yesterday on South East Radio.

A live debate was planned for 11am on South East Radio today with host Alan Corcoran, between candidates Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail), George Lawlor (Labour), Verona Murphy (Fine Gael) and Johnny Mythen (Sinn Féin). However, Verona Murphy was absent from this all-important opportunity for the people of Co.Wexford to hear the candidates’ views on the issues facing the people of Co.Wexford.

Last night’s Tonight Show had Johnny Mythen, Cinnamon Blackmore, George Lawlor, Malcolm Byrne, Karin Dubsky, all on the panel, and still no sign of Verona Murphy.

Is her absence from these debates evidence that she is unable to debate with opponents, or are Fine Gael simply trying to ensure that she avoids further opportunities for their candidate to deviate from the script?

Or is there a more acceptable reason for her absence? WexfordToday is open to hearing from Ms Murphy in this regard.

Furthermore, it appears that An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is also running scared of the people of Wexford, and has made little more than a token effort to support Ms Murphy’s campaign. Appearing in Wexford on Monday evening, Mr Varadkar spent 40 minutes in the town canvassing with Verona Murphy.

One aspect of the campaign which Verona Murphy has excelled at is her team’s use of social media. Regular updates on her Facebook page have kept the follower well informed as to her canvassing movements and campaign issues. It is all the more surprising therefore that this visit and apparent show of ‘support’ from An Taoiseach yesterday has not been mentioned on Ms. Murphy’s social media accounts. For a Taoiseach so fond of a photo opportunity, to cloud a visit in such secrecy implies that all is not well in the Fine Gael camp.

The fallout from her ‘controversial’ comments in relation to asylum seekers and subsequent apology raises the most important of questions: Why did she apologise if she meant what she said? And if she did not mean what she said, then what else has she said during her campaign that she doesn’t mean? The apology raises more questions than it answers.

In addition to her lack of co-operation with both RTE Radio and South East Radio, it must be noted that to date, despite numerous attempts to arrange an interview with Verona Murphy, she has yet to agree to the requests of WexfordToday.com. Viewers of our website can see the time and opportunity we afforded to the other candidates in the race. The same has been available for Verona Murphy, but so far our offer hasn’t been accepted.

In the event that Verona Murphy is elected as a TD following Friday’s election, one hopes that she doesn’t prove as elusive as a TD as she has as a candidate.