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Updated at 10:20pm
ALAN SHATTER HAS been selected as the Fine Gael candidate in the Dublin-Rathdown constituency.
The former justice minister defeated local councillor Neale Richmond and party activist John Kennedy at a selection convention held tonight.
First-time councillor Josepha Madigan, the only female in the race, has also been selected to run in the constituency, after Fine Gael headquarters instructed party members to pick one male and one female candidate.
The directive had put pressure on Shatter, who was seen to be facing tough competition from Richmond to be the male nominee.
Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell’s decision to retire from politics meant many of her supporters were thought to be backing Richmond, who worked for Mitchell and ran her election campaign in 2011.
As we reported in August, Shatter faced a further battle for members’ backing with many of his supporters having been moved into a neighbouring constituency.
The boundary redraw reduced the number of Fine Gael members in Dublin-Rathdown (formerly Dublin South) from over 400 to around 230 with some of Shatter’s supporters now moved into Dublin South-West.
His popularity locally has also waned in the wake of the various garda and justice controversies that forced him to resign from cabinet last year and the closure of a local garda station.
Additional reporting by Catherine Healy
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Currently on-hold with Aer Lingus for over 90 minutes. The next availability for a flight home to Ireland is apparently Tuesday. We’ve had 2 flights home cancelled on Wednesday, 2 Thursday, naturally all Friday and 3 more flights cancelled today.
Hoping they’ll go the extra mile and just resettle us, get us jobs etc here altogether: it’d probably be less hassle in the long run.
@Yesterday’s Jam: I had the same issue so I’ve just taken the rail sail its 42 quid from anywhere on the UK on virgin trains and we’ve just docked in Dublin from holyhead. I have an unused flight at 7.50 this evening on Ryanair from Birmingham Airport if you can get there?
@James Milligan:
Thanks so much James: we’re in France and the next/last flight we’ve booked is tonight towards Dublin once more.
We’ll try the UK and across if that’s cancelled: we never thought 7 different flights would be cancelled – we were always hanging on for “just the next one”!
I’d like to think that at some point somebody’s going to do the math, calculate that our country’s currently losing around a billion euro a day and make the case for investing a few million euro more per year in extra snow/ice clearing capabilities: ideally through the army.
@Yesterday’s Jam:
A few million euro won’t get you much
@Yesterday’s Jam: It happens once every 30 years, it was only 48 hours out of the last 262,800 hours, no need to be so dramatic.
@Yesterday’s Jam:
I’ll give the math a shot!
Back of a fag packet calcs – nothing too fancy or scientific!
Six extra snow ploughs @ €1 m a pop= six million euro.
Parking / maintenance charges for 35 years – big sum!
When eventually mobilized, probably be hindered from doing their work anyway, due to abandoned vehicles, and just clog up the roads some more.
Conclusion: Sit tight. it’ll be grand, the nation just chills out for the few days affected.
@Yesterday’s Jam:
Right…you guys realise that a billion is 1000 million right? As in, we lost one of those on Thursday, one on Friday and probably another one between Wednesday and Saturday.
Even if you split that over 35 years it’s 80 million a year… I’m suggesting a few million euro a year to equip and train more personnel (defence forces?) to help keep the main transport links open and you think I’m being unreasonable? Go figure.
@Ala Alowska:
Fair comment Ala, perhaps better personal planning (snow socks / chains etc) and local cleaning of paths rather than government spending is more appropriate.
All credit to TII: it seems they learned from 2010 and acted on it with regards salt provisions.
Don’t know about the rest of the country but Limerick is way worse than Thursday night!
@The Bunk: A lot of snow fell as well in North Cork last night. Can’t wait for this to end..
@quality cheese: Struggling here too near Glendalough. My shed door is completely covered, the back door is covered by 3 foot of snow, our bench in the front has completely vanished, and the 2 shops in town are out of basics.
Getting various start times from bus eireann site and media sources for bus eireann county travel times….can anyone just clarify as my wife needs to get to work supporting our most vulnerable people
@Aikinomichi Midleton: What part of the country are you in?
@Noel Ryan: I’m guessing Midleton
Dublin coach never closed drove through the whole lot wow
@Johnny Mason: taxis never stopped either. Took huge risks in insurance terms.
@Johnny Mason: F ¥(king idiots could have killed customers
@Johnny Mason: Fu#€ing idiots could have killed customers
@Johnny Mason: Where did you get that info from? Dublin coach cancelled all their services all day today and yesterday as confirmed by them on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
The Govt and Co. Councils should buy a bunch of these. God knows the Gardai could have used 1 yesterday but many other applications and…not expensive! Multiple winner of Paris-Dakar rally too. Takes 20 odd people in Any conditions:
What’s the story with Cork Airport, Dublin is operational and weather conditions there are at least as bad.
@Charles Coughlan:
Cork Airport is in a terrible location: extremely exposed. It should never have been located there, the better option was on the old WW1 airfield on the trainline and intercity road by Mogeely. Political sway brought it to it’s current location.
On top of this they’re essentially paying farming contractors to try to clear the runway with tractors: inadequate equipment, and not enough of it. Not sure what the equipment is like in Dublin, but I’d presume it to be of a higher standard, given the higher passenger numbers and given that it’s where the DAA (who run Cork Airport!) are based.
Anybody getting 130 from town? It’s stopping at the terminus on Clontarf Rd and going no further.
This video shows how to drive in 3m of snow….Our emergency workers could do with one!
https://youtu.be/blrFzzxUx6Y
This video is great fun!! Unreal driving..
https://youtu.be/FUlGKJ2UJ8o
Why the built green line on slopes is beyond me. Why not do what most country’s do ground level all the way . Bad planning in such a small country is hard to believe & we continue to make mad decisions , now Leo wants to bring metro to sandyford & wait no Luas green line @ all . Thick idiots in planning
Well done Ireland. We have lots to improve but we have done well over the last few days. I’m proud of my little country. Let’s continue to make our place a good place in which to live. What doesn’t destroy us makes us stronger.
With Dublin bus back on the streets of Dublin bringing us traffic madness
Multihog is what’s wanted
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