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FIANNA FÁIL COUNCILLOR Kate Feeney is considering seeking the party’s nomination to run in the general election, potentially resuming her fraught battle with former minister Mary Hanafin.
In what became known as the ‘Battle of Blackrock’, Feeney and Hanafin fought a high-profile battle for council seats in last year’s local elections. After Fianna Fáil botched the nominating process, Hanafin ended up running as an ‘unofficial’ party candidate alongside Feeney.
Both were elected to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and could now contest the Fianna Fáil selection convention for the nomination to run for the party in the Dún Laoghaire Dáil constituency.
The selection convention is due to take place before the end of May with Dún Laoghaire-based councillor Cormac Devlin, who has the backing of Mary O’Rourke, also set to contest.
Feeney has told TheJournal.ie that she will make her mind up tomorrow about whether or not to seek the party’s nomination. She said she has come under pressure at both a local and national level within the party to run.
I’m still thinking about it. I’ve a team meeting tomorrow evening and the final decision will be taken at that stage. Pressure is being put on me to put my name forward by members who would have helped out in my local election campaign.
She added: “I am on the national executive of the party and at a meeting last week members were encouraging me to put my name forward.”
Meanwhile, Hanafin, who confirmed her intention to run some months ago, has now withdrawn her name from consideration for the position of vice president of Fianna Fáil.
She told this website she was doing so in order to concentrate solely on winning the nomination in Dún Laoghaire. Hanafin would have been well-placed to win one of five vice presidency roles at the party’s Ard Fheis later this month.
But she told TheJournal.ie: “I think the best contribution I can make to the future of Fianna Fáil is to win a seat in Dún Laoghaire and taking on an organisational role would take me out of there. So I don’t want to pursue that at this stage.”
Both the Hanafin and Feeney camps believe that a one candidate strategy represents the best chance for Fianna Fáil to win a Dáil seat.
Dún Laoghaire is currently set to be a three-seater at the next election on the assumption that current Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett is automatically re-elected if he does not decide to retire or step down and run for re-election, as has been mooted in some circles.
Barrett’s fellow Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell-O’Connor is considered a certainty to be re-elected. The eventual Fianna Fáil candidate is set to battle it out with ex-Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd-Barrett for the other two seats.
At least me dole and chilrens alowence is up so dat’ll offset some of cost for me ciggies. De kids will go hungry be4 I give up me Johnny Blus!
@Tweety McTweeter: How much will the tax on ancient stereotypes have to go up before you’ll break the habit?
@Neal Ireland Hello.: how much does the tax on snowflake reality rejectors have to go up before it takes effect
Stop smoking altogether! Can’t be bothered with the arguments it’ll hit lower income society! Don’t smoke then it won’t
@Gavin: yes give up if you can. I just worked out I save 167.00 on the additional tax alone. Next step stop my addiction to sugar by giving that up.
Just smoke weed instead it’s great.
@Craic head: good man, keep the Kinihens in business and guns on the street
Strange that this can be brought in over night, yet anything useful waits until the end of the year. Pity they can’t be this productive on a daily basis!
It should be put up by € 10 actually if not more. Major cause of hospital admissions due to smoking related diseases.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: and the huge tax smokers pay offsets the cost.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: They won’t, as if people quit smoking and drinking, they’re screwed! If they really wanted people to quit, it’d be €50 a pack, but they need the money.
I’ve no intentions of quitting, sure I get them from abroad anyway.
@Joe Travers: and wait until you see the final days of your / they’re lives due to smoking -shocking.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: I’m sure a pensioner who has smoked all their lives and paid taxes really deserves that.
Think before you talk Deirdre, it’s ok for someone working but if that’s all a pensioner looks forward too, I think that sort of an increase is disgusting. And im an ex smoker.
@Deirdre D’Arcy Murphy: no one will buy and all trade will be done black market, most of it is now anyway. Polish and Chinese smokes are available for €25 a carton (200)
Im approximately 18 months cigarette free.
Personally I find these increases disgraceful.
I’m not one of these ex smokers that blab such s€€€ like “each one of them takes bla bla off you life” or eugh their disgusting.
Surprised.
The reason why I find this increase disgraceful is 1/ The amount of tax imposed on the product by the government and 2/ Pensioners, some of them have worked hard all their lives and now live on the state pension, these increases are alright for a working person but the pensioner will go without an item such as clothing or heating to get their cigarettes.
So to all you ex or anti smokers who gloat about this, think a little harder not harsher.
At least we’ll get some of that welfare rise back….
The people selling smokes on the street will love this as they are going to have a lot more cash in their pockets.
12 euro a pack? I would expect each cigarette to be laced with cocaine for that kind of money.
Every year its the same targets…why not put the price of a pint up to €12…alcohol is more a problem in this country than smoking. If someone wants to smoke its their choice. Whoever keeps saying to put up the price of cigarettes obvioulys never worked in hotels. This country is a joke!! Its already the most expensive for everything…they will just start turning tourists away next!
Gave up the flags on the 20th Feb, haven’t saved a penny, what ever I spent on fags I now eat that amount extra and more lol, as far as I am concerned they didn’t put them up enough, put a €5 increase on them and ban public smoking everywhere, hell just ban smoking, and if anyone caught selling on the black market it’s 20 years minimum
@Mick Hannigan: vote for mick “the ban” hannigan
@Mick Hannigan: that’s just silly talk
@Andrew Mockler: also ban you from commenting lol :)
@jagmerc: get back in your sad box
@Mick Hannigan: very arsh, Mick, very arsh.
Time to quit smoking i think,not going to pay 12 euro for a packet of cigarettes. 100 euro a week over the next 9 months would give me a nice family holiday.
@Doung O Driscoll: The book is very good and works for many people . The pharma industry is inclined to highlight the difficulty with nicotine addiction in order to push more nicotine via patches,chewing gum and what have you but the book will make you laugh and once you close the book you don’t even want to smoke -
@Doung O Driscoll: I gave them up when they put Benson and Hedges up to 1.50 a packet….f
eck it I said, I aint payi g that, and havnt had a fag since all those years ago now
I am off them nearly a year . Up a few lbs but happy i did it .
€0.60 a cigarette now with six puffs per cigarette equating to 10cent per puff.
Very few smokers left now – either in the ground or quit
I last my job last month. I was in the social welfare office to arrange payment of an overpayment last year when I started work, and I told them when they asked that I didn’t expect to be entitled to dole sice I quit a job but I was encouraged to, as it could stand against me to have a gap. Somebody like me shouldn’t be getting the dole. I quit my job!
@M: idiot
@M: If you feel bad about it you could always give the money to a charity or homeless shelter and live on fresh air until you find another job.
Baxtards.
They’ll never force me to quit, never! I love me fags i do.
Value the health of our nation,by taxing everything to the fking hilt.
They could make a tax of € 0.05 per posted comment and €0.01 per thumbs up on the journal.ie and eliminate cigarette, soft drink and likely liquor and ale tales, plus no water charges. Surely that would work out?
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