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'It was just for a joke' - Fianna Fáil TD deletes limousine tweet after Twitter backlash

Kevin O’Keeffe, who is running for re-election in Cork East, said he had posted the tweet "just for a joke" and confirmed he is not campaigning in a limo Expand

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Kevin O’Keeffe, who is running for re-election in Cork East, said he had posted the tweet "just for a joke" and confirmed he is not campaigning in a limo

Kevin O’Keeffe, who is running for re-election in Cork East, said he had posted the tweet "just for a joke" and confirmed he is not campaigning in a limo

Kevin O’Keeffe, who is running for re-election in Cork East, said he had posted the tweet "just for a joke" and confirmed he is not campaigning in a limo

Hugh O'Connell

A FIANNA Fáil TD deleted a tweet which showed him beside a limo with his campaign poster on it because of negative feedback from Twitter users who accused him of being "out of touch".

Kevin O’Keeffe, who is running for re-election in Cork East, said he had posted the tweet "just for a joke" and confirmed he is not campaigning in a limo.

"After long day needed top up #AnIrelandForAll," the tweet read with a picture of the TD stood inside the driver door of the stretch limousine.

The tweet was posted within minutes of the first general election opinion poll being published showing Fianna Fáil with a 12-point lead over Fine Gael.

It also came hours after Fine Gael was embroiled in controversy over a now-deleted campaign video depicting Fianna Fáil TDs running around Dublin city centre looking for policies.

Mr O’Keeffe told Independent.ie that the majority of comments he got after the tweet was posted were from users who believed he was going around in a limo for his campaign.

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Some users raised the housing and homelessness crisis with O’Keeffe and noted his party had kept Fine Gael in government in recent years. One user said: "They get more and more out of touch each election."

Mr O’Keeffe said: "It was very negative. I was having a bit of fun I don't have a limousine.

"I just happened to pull in at a filling station and just for a joke I said: ‘Lads can we put a sticker on the car and take a photo?’ It was shocking they [Twitter users] thought I'd bought a limousine."

Mr O’Keeffe said that he eventually took the tweet down because of the negative feedback he got and lamented that Twitter is a difficult place to be humorous at present.

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