Connacht-Ulster MEP Mr Pat the Cope Gallagher has denied looking for a deal that would guarantee him a Cabinet position if Fianna Fβil are returned to power in exchange for winning back a seat for the party in the Donegal South-West constituency.
The seat, which was taken by Independent TD Mr Thomas Gildea at the last election, will be a priority for Fianna Fβil. It is now generally believed Mr Gallagher will contest the seat. It is also expected that the former Minister of State, who has been an MEP since 1994, would top the poll. Minister of State Ms Mary Coughlan is the sitting Fianna Fβil TD in the constituency.
This week, Mr Gallagher refused to be drawn on whether he was about to return to national politics, saying an election was at least six months away, no date had been set for the selection convention and he was concentrating his energies on Europe.
On suggestions that he is seeking a promise of a senior ministry, he said it was not in his nature to make demands. "I am a team player, and at all times I have put the constituency and Fianna Fβil before my own ambitions," he said.
However, he was keen to stress how important the second seat would be to the party. "Fianna Fβil must strive to regain the seat. This seat and other marginals will play an important role in deciding if Bertie Ahern will be the Taoiseach after the election," he said.
"The one objective is to ensure that the seat is won back irrespective of who the candidates are, and I would hope to play an important role in the election, irrespective of who is running," he said.
The selection convention is expected to be held in October. However, Fianna Fβil could only say yesterday that no date has been set. The view in the constituency is that it can only happen once Mr Gallagher decides whether or not he will run.
Donegal South-West is among the last five constituencies to hold a selection convention. Mr Gallagher formerly held two different minister of state posts and succeeded in winning a second seat for Fianna Fβil in Connacht-Ulster with Ms Coughlan. He only gave up his Dβil seat because of the dual mandate rule.
In the past, he topped the poll with enough extra votes to help Ms Coughlan get elected. The decision to appoint her Minister of State Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands in February was no doubt due in part to the need to bolster the Fianna Fβil vote.
At the last general election, Ms Coughlan topped the poll with 6,597 first preference votes while the other Fianna Fβil candidate, Sen Enda Bonner, received 5,742 first preferences.
However, with 38 per cent of the vote, they could not prevent Mr Gildea's election, and Fianna Fβil will need to increase their share of the vote by about 5 per cent to retake the second seat.
Ms Coughlan said this week she believed a lot of work had been done on the ground since 1997 and that the party's vote would increase. She said the organisation was rebuilt in areas where it had become inactive.
Sen Bonner said he could not yet say if he would put his name forward for selection if Mr Gallagher confirmed he was going to run. He said he would continue to work for the constituency.
Mr Gildea said he had widened his support base since the election. He said that while he was elected on the TV deflector issue, he had not been a single-issue TD. He said Fianna Fβil was now paying a lot more attention to Donegal South-West because of his election and because it was a marginal constituency.