Pressure is on to bring in extra seats

SITTING TDs who do not cooperate with HQ when it comes to the critical art of winning extra seats will suffer when it comes to who may get the best jobs after any election, senior figures in Fine Gael have warned.

Amid increasing sparring between the confidence and supply partners, FG have moved to sharply accelerate the finalisation of their candidate selection. The move came as one senior source warned: ‘When it comes to Leo’s desire to maximise seats any political bedblockers that want to sit on one seat will suffer.’

He added: ‘A historic win and single-party government is within our grasp and no one, not even Paschal [the Finance Minister], will be allowed get in the way of that objective.’

He added: ‘Fellows who think they are sitting pretty and HQ won’t come looking for them can forget it. We want every constituency where we can gain a seat sorted by July.’

Of the 47 candidates selected to date just 13 are women, which means the party is two female candidates short of compliance with gender-quota legislation.