This article is from page 2 of the 2006-03-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
SOURCES close to Fianna Fáil believe that the Clare General Election convention will follow a process whereby only one of three places on the ticket will be up for contest.
Through the “district convention”, Minister of State Tony Killeen would automatically be placed on the ticket as the only North Clare candidate for the party.
Senator Brendan Daly would also be automatically selected as the only representative for the Soldiers of Destiny in the West of the county.
This would leave the two remaining candidates to battle it out for the third place on the Fianna Fáil ticket in Clare.
A similar process was followed at the Longford West Meath Convention and the Cork North West convention.
The new date of the Clare convention, April 3, was announced this week.
Senator Timmy Dooley and Councillor Pat Hayes are both considered as East Clare candidates, despite Senator Dooley opening an Ennis constituency office last month.
Cllr Hayes was the last of the four candidates to indicate his intention to run for the party in next year’s election.
The man for Maghera put forward his name last December, just weeks before the initial date for the county convention.
The announced retirement from politics after the next election of Minister of State, Síle de Valera, in November, meant Fianna Fáil headquarters had to rethink the date of the selection process in Clare.
According to Fianna Fáil sources in Dublin, a search to find a suitable replacement candidate from the Ennis area proved fruitless and the April 3 date was set.
A spokesperson for Fianna Fáil told The Clare People that while the form the convention would take would not be decided until nearer the convention date, the Fianna Fail rule book allowed for “district conventions” and it was not unusual to hold them. The convention will take place in the Auburn Lodge Hotel at 7.30pm.
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael selection convention is expected before the party’s Ard Fheis in May.
Five Fine Gael candidates were pre-selected for the contest last October.
Sitting Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen along with councillors Joe Carey, John Crowe, Tony Mulcahy and Madeleine Taylor-Quinn will be vying for a position on the blue team’s ticket in 2007.
Early indications from party sources suggest that the historical two candidates will be put on the balloting paper, one less than in 2002.