FF to hold convention for empty council seat
THE Fianna Fail party has confirmed that the process to fill its vacant seat on Cork County Council’s Kanturk/Mallow municipal district committee is to get underway shortly.
The party’s seat on the committee has been vacant since last September following the resignation of Daniel Fitzgerald, who was co-opted on to the authority the previous June following the death of his late father Dan Joe Fitzgerald.
A spokesperson for Fianna Fail HQ in Dublin confirmed to The Corkman that the process of finding Mr Fitzgerald’s replacement would begin soon.
“The selection process to replace former councillor Daniel Fitzgerald will take place over the next number of weeks. We will write to members on the matter shortly,” said the spokesperson.
It is understood these letters will be send out within the next few days, with the selection convention likely to take place before the end of the month.
The only current sitting party member on the committee, Cllr Bernard Moynihan, said the statement from HQ “came as news to him.”
“There has been a total lack of communication from head office on this issue. To be perfectly honest I am baffled as to why this process, which could have quite easily been dealt with within a couple of weeks, has taken so long,” said a clearly frustrated Cllr Moynihan.
“It has been a hard slog being the only Fianna Fail representative on the committee. I need the support of a colleague to get things done both at local and full council level,” he added.
It is believed there are four candidates in the running to take up the vacant seat with former county councillor Bart Donegan, who lost his seat at the 2014 local elections, among the first to declare his interest last October.
Kanturk-based solicitor Gearóid Murphy and Mallow woman Rosarie Flaherty, a dispensary technician at the CUH have also declared their interest in taking up the seat with Buttevant’s Paul Kinnane also believed to be interested.
Once the final line-up of candidates has been confirmed Fianna Fail will announce the date of the convention, with more than 200 party members from the Kanturk/Mallow district eligible to vote.