FINE Gael’s director of elections, Paschal Donohoe, has informed the members of the Cork South West constituency that the former county councillor, Noel O’Donovan, will not be added to the ticket.
A full constituency meeting is now expected to be held at 8pm at the Celtic Ross Hotel tonight (Monday, January 13th) to discuss the situation and the national executive and the director of election’s refusal to consider a petition that was signed by 560 of its party members in Cork South West asking for Noel O’Donovan to be added to the ticket.
On December 18th, the Fine Gael national executive and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar selected sitting Fine Gael Cllr Karen Coakley to be Senator Tim Lombard’s running mate in the upcoming general election.
On Wednesday, January 8th the petition – which was signed by 560 Fine Gael constituency members in CSW – was delivered to the director of elections.
But at about 2pm today (Monday, January 13th) Paschal Donohoe informed the members that Noel O’Donovan, a former councillor who was first co-opted in 2011 – following Jim Daly’s election to Dáil Eireann – and returned in the 2014 local election, will not be placed on the ticket.
The meeting in the Celtic Ross tonight is expected to be highly contentious and attract several hundreds of members of the Fine Gael party as they discuss what one party member called ‘discontent and dissention’ in the party, and the fear that the Fine Gael seat in the three-seater CSW consistency could now be in jeopardy.
