Updated: 20.11
THE MAYOR OF Cork County has resigned from Fianna Fáil.
Alan Coleman cited a “disconnect by the party leadership with everyday local and national issues” as his reason.
The councillor will now run as an independent candidate in the general election, after failing to be selected to run for the party in the Cork South West constituency.
“Travelling throughout Cork county as mayor in recent months I have observed a palpable air of dissatisfaction with the lack of vision and leadership of Fianna Fáil,” Coleman said in a statement issued this afternoon.
“Fianna Fáil is clearly lacking policies that will improve the country we live in.
“As an experienced publicly elected representative I listen to the people that elect me and who I serve. Meeting these people it is clear that issues that affect urban and rural Ireland are not being brought to the fore by Fianna Fáil.”
The news is another blow for Fianna Fáil, with prominent Senator Averil Power resigning from the party last month.
Coleman said the party has “become reactive rather than proactive towards issues that impinge on farmers, small businesses and fishermen alike”, staing: “Rural Ireland has been decimated by the present government and Micheál Martin has failed to react.”
I have been considering my future for some time and the groundswell of support towards me from people throughout West Cork has persuaded me to move forward as an independent.
“I have made many friends in politics, particularly in Fianna Fáil but today this is a selfless decision by me to allow the constituents of Cork South West to elect an experienced, capable and proven representative.
“Since 1991 every time I stood for public election I have been returned and I look forward to the opportunity of representing the views of Cork South West effectively in Dáil Eireann.”
Coleman was First elected as a councillor in 1991 and became the first Fianna Fáil Mayor of Cork County since 1990.
A Fianna Fáil spokesperson said:
It is open to anyone to seek the party nomination and contest the convention in each constituency.Over 400 members voted in the convention in Cork South West at the weekend. Two very strong candidates contested, Gillian Coughlan and Cllr Margaret Murphy-O’Mahony.Under the one-member-one-vote system, it was the decision of party members alone who to select and the party respects the decision. The membership supported Cllr Margaret Murphy-O’Mahony and we look forward to an energetic campaign in the constituency.
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