The outgoing TD for Galway West Éamon Ó Cuív has confirmed broadcaster Gráinne Seoige has expressed interest in standing for Fianna Fáil in the constituency in the next general election.
Mr Ó Cúiv said that Ms Seoige (50) has been in contact with Fianna Fáil members in the constituency seeking their support in advance of the party’s convention to select candidates.
The former RTÉ and Sky News presenter moved to South Africa in 2016 with her husband Leon Jordaan and set up a bespoke diamond business. The couple moved back to Ireland over the past two years.
From the Gaeltacht village of An Spidéal and a native speaker, Ms Seoige is well placed to secure the nomination as the Connemara candidate in succession to Mr Ó Cuív who is retiring from politics after the general election. Mr Ó Cuív emphasised on Tuesday he would not be backing any candidate seeking a Fianna Fáil nomination.
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“There is a tradition in the party in Galway West that it is the members who decide without due influence from the likes of me. I will leave it to the members,” he said.
It is understood that, as of now, neither of the party’s two sitting councillors in Connemara, Máirtín Lee or Gerry King, will be putting their names forward. Given Mr Ó Cuív’s strong base in Connemara, the party is likely to field one candidate from there with the second candidate coming from the city area.
Contacted on Wednesday, Ms Seoige said she was making no comment on her intentions.
The leading candidates in the east (Galway City side) of the constituency are Senator Ollie Crowe, and city councillors John Connolly and Eddie Cheevers.
Ms Seoige has been contacting many of the 500 party members in Galway West seeking their support. She needs the support of only five delegates, or one cumann, to put her name forward to the convention. That is expected to be held in early September.
One of the original intake of TV reporters on TG4 in 1996, Ms Seoige subsequently went on to become a news presenter with TV3 and with Sky News Ireland. She then moved to RTÉ where she hosted her own afternoon show, Seoige.
However, after 2011, she appeared less frequently as a presenter on RTÉ. In 2017, she liquidated the production company for her TV work, and other media work, because of a significant decline in earnings.
In 2015, KBC Bank took court proceedings to repossess a house that Ms Seoige had owned jointly with her former husband, Stephen Cullinane. The couple separated in 2010.
Ms Seoige’s high profile, in addition to her Gaeltacht and Irish language credentials, would be seen as factors that would benefit her effort to seek a nomination notwithstanding her lack of history with the party.
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