FIANNA FÁIL MEMBERS in Dublin Bay North will tomorrow select their candidate for the general election with the son of the late taoiseach Charlie Haughey being tipped to take the nomination.
The constituency is being closely watched in the wake of acrimonious departure of senator Averil Power from Fianna Fáil last month. She had been among the potential candidates for the nomination.
However, the party confirmed tonight that four candidates will be putting their names forward. Around 400 members in the newly-created constituency will be asked to select one.
As well Haughey, councillors Deirdre Heney and Tom Brabazon and former local election candidate Aileen Woods have also put their names forward.
The convention is seen as a straight battle between Haughey, a former junior minister and current Dublin city councillor, and Heney, who has been a councillor since 1999.
Both polled impressively at last year’s local elections with Haughey winning 2,440 first preferences votes and Heney taking 2,175 in the Clontarf ward.
Brabazon polled 2,334 first preferences in the Beaumont-Donaghmede ward last year.
He previously made headlines when he sparked a war of words with Power earlier this year after saying that gender quotas were a “tokenistic patronisation of women”.
Woods, the daughter of former minister Michael Woods, took 761 votes in the Howth-Malahide ward at the last local elections.
Local sources are predicting Haughey will win the nomination but it is expected to be a tight convention. Fianna Fáil is likely to add a second candidate to the ticket with this set to be either Heney or Woods.
As TheJournal.ie reported on Saturday, Fianna Fáil has so far nominated only a handful of female candidates with over half of its selection conventions completed.
The party needs to ensure a third of its Dáil hopefuls are female or face having its state funding halved in the next parliamentary term.
In addition to the five women nominated to run for the Dáil before last weekend, members in Cork South West selected councillor Margaret Murphy O’Mahon at a convention on Sunday night.
On current numbers, less than 20 per cent of Fianna Fáil candidates are women.
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