Fianna Fáil's Mr Royston Brady will tonight be elected Lord Mayor of Dublin with the help of the votes of Labour members of Dublin City Council.
The Green Party called on Labour last night to back away from its deal with Fianna Fáil. "It smacks of jobs for the boys," said Green councillor, Mr Ryan Meade.
Fianna Fáil and Labour have shared the post since the last local elections in 1999 under a pact agreed shortly afterwards. Mr Brady won the Fianna Fáil nomination over former TD, Ms Mary Mooney by 11 votes to 9.
A third candidate, Ms Deirdre Heney, withdrew from the contest before the vote. She was selected uncontested as the candidate for deputy mayor.
Mr Brady is a brother of Senator Cyprian Brady, a confidante of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. Aged 30, the prospective lord mayor has been a training adviser with the tourism training body CERT since December 1999.
He was first elected to the council in the North Inner City Ward in 1999 and was deputy mayor in 2000. He will succeed Mr Dermot Lacey as lord mayor. Mr Lacey lost the Labour whip after defying the party in the vote on this year's estimates. The whip has not yet been returned to him.
Green TD, Mr John Gormley said the Fianna Fáil/Labour deal was another example of Labour's "double-think".
He said: "Labour must now make up its mind. There can no longer be any equivocation on Fianna Fáil. The grubby deal which Labour concluded with Fianna Fáil last year, which allows the Taoiseach to take Thursdays off, has been a godsend for Fianna Fáil but a real blow for democratic accountability." He said Labour members should refuse to vote for the Fianna Fáil mayoral nominee.
