NO DECISION has been made by the late Tony Gregory’s tight-knit organisation on whether it will contest the Dublin Central byelection caused by his recent death.
The main focus is on Cllr Maureen O’Sullivan, a member of Dublin City Council for the north inner city, who gave an emotional eulogy at his funeral Mass. She said yesterday there had been no discussion on running a candidate. “We are still grieving for Tony.”
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Cyprian Brady hold the two Fianna Fáil seats in the four-seater, while Labour’s Joe Costello holds the other seat. Fianna Fáil secured 44.45 per cent of the first preference vote in the 2007 general election, thanks to Mr Ahern’s legendary vote-getting skills. He polled 12,734 first preferences and his surplus helped to elect Mr Brady, who had polled 939 votes.
The third Fianna Fáil candidate, Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick, polled 1,725 first preferences. She is the frontrunner for the nomination.
The Fine Gael candidate will be Senator Paschal Donohoe who polled 3,302 first preferences in the general election. Since his election to the Seanad he has in- creased his profile as chairman of the Oireachtas committee on the future of Europe following the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty.
Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Emer Costello, wife of the sitting Labour TD, may secure that party’s nomination.
This follows Cllr Aodhan Ó Riordain’s decision to stick with his plan to contest the local elections in the Clontarf electoral area and pursue a Dáil seat in Dublin North Central.
The timing of the byelection is likely to determine who the Sinn Féin candidate will be. If it is held on the same day as the European and local elections, MEP Mary Lou McDonald will contest her European parliament seat. SF councillor Christy Burke said yesterday he will decide shortly if he will seek a party nomination.
