Snap Election may bring Political Dynasty to Close
As we went to press, three of Waterford’s sitting TDs had confirmed their intent to seek re-election in the event of a General Election being called in the next 24 hours.
While Mary Butler (FF), David Cullinane (SF) and John Halligan (IA) have signalled their intention to seek re-election, it’s emerged that Fine Gael TD John Deasy wasn’t among the three names seeking the FG nomination at last (Monday) night’s Selection Convention in Dungarvan.
TD John Deasy: are we nearing the end of his Dáil career?
The three names put forward for nomination were Senator Paudie Coffey, along with Councillors Damien Geoghegan and John Cummins. The absence of Deputy Deasy from the nominees list was confirmed to this newspaper by Fine Gael at 6.30pm last night.
It’s understood that Deputy Deasy is currently in the United States in his brief as Government envoy to the US and was therefore not in a position to attend the Convention at Lawlor’s Hotel.
However, the absence of Deputy Deasy’s name from the initial list of nominees does not automatically mean that the door has been clasped shut on the Deasy political dynasty at Oireachtas level, which dates back to his late father Austin’s election in 1977.
A Fine Gael spokesperson stressed that the party’s Executive Council can add another candidate to the ticket at a later date – and let’s not forget the 2007 election when the party ran a three candidate ticket composed of John Deasy, Paudie Coffey and Jim D’Arcy.
John Deasy, who has held a Dáil seat since 2002, batted on air for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s stance in relation to embattled Minister Frances Fitzgerald on last Friday’s ‘Today With Sean O’Rourke’ programme on RTE Radio One.