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FINE GAEL HAS selected Minister of State European Affairs and incumbent TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Senator Barry Ward to contest the Dún Laoghaire constituency in Dublin.
The party has selected seven candidates for the next general election so far, in five constituencies. Carroll MacNeill and Ward are joining the ticket in the South Dublin constituency for the second time in a row.
Government has remained adamant that it will see out it’s term until March 2025, although questions about the potential for an earlier election were raised again last week after Cabinet announced it was bringing the Budget forward, a week earlier, in October.
The money ministers waved off any rumours of an early election and blamed the rescheduling on a double booking, as both Finance minister Jack Chambers and Minister for Expenditure Paschal Donohoe are attending European council meetings on the original date.
Though there’s said to be no election on the horizon, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. A meeting tonight in the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire, chaired by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, saw both candidates selected.
Carroll MacNeill, who first elected during the last election in 2020, was selected by members in the strong Fine Gael constituency. The junior minister was elected to the Dáil just a few months after her first election as a councillor in 2019.
“I look forward to engaging with everyone and to ask for their number one vote to return me as their TD for the second time,” she said this evening.
Barry Ward, who previously served as a councillor for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, was elected as a senator for the party in 2020 on the Industrial and Commercial Panel. He will be running in the constituency for the second time.
Ward, who is the party’s spokesperson on justice, ran unsuccessfully in 2020 for a seat in the Dáil. Speaking this evening, however, Ward said that he’s confident Fine Gael can win two seats in Dún Laoghaire in the next election.
“We have a good strong team here and we need to turn that into Dáil seats. In the meantime, my work continues in Leinster House and throughout our fine constituency,” he said.
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Are there no celebrities or sports stars available, that’s very disappointing. maybe one of the less well known Boyzone or Westlife lads are available.
@Eddie Garvey: Nicki minaj is available.I think? They’d work well together. Spoofers..
@Eddie Garvey: haters gonna hate lol
@Paul Gorry: She wont canvass in the rain Paul.
@Eddie Garvey: Will SF have any drop-in candidates from Northern Ireland.
What next, Mutt and Jeff?
She’s a very annoying woman.
@Tom: She’s riddled with hatred for members of another political party, is that what we want?, in fairness many of her colleagues in FG are also riddled with the same hatred. I think it’s their hatred that guides them.
There is now no other party large enough to stop another 5 years of FFG rule. And that is just facts.
@9QRixo8H: Says Buttercut.
Fair play to the dubs they don’t half give us some right old laughs.
@Leonard Barry: Hahaha, Leonard, ye don’t half sound jealous.
Another 2 tickets on the gravy train more waffle and little done. Another waste.
The amount of delicate snowflakes acting like the triggered sheep that you are is laughable. Not a single one of you are capable of contributing anything other than immature nonsense. I’ve said it many times, take a look around you and you will notice that the majority of people have their lives in order. They all lived under the same governments as you did. The only people responsible for your failures in life are yourselves. Everything is a result of the decisions you made in your lifetime.
@Sun Rise: cmere sun rise ye moan and groan and whimper all 3. Now sun rise tell us, why our kids can’t afford a house while making good money?
@Sun Rise: Is it my Sister’s/brother in-laws or my 25 year old Nephew who’s a qualified plumbers fault that he’s still living in his mother’s house because of he can’t afford to rent or buy a house on his own?. When I moved out of my parents house I was 21 and just finished my apprenticeship and could easily afford the rent on the 2 bed apartment by myself. My Nephew is making more per week than I was back then and he can’t afford to rent the same apartment now. It was on recently up for €2800 per month, I was paying €1000 per month when I rented it 23 years ago. But yea let’s not moan that’s clearly my Sister’s/brother in law or the nephews own fault right?.
@Sun Rise: funny how when I speak to family members with college degrees and good jobs in the private sector, they are saying they can’t save and find everything out of reach.
So you are either a bot or a very highly paid civil servant. That’s why it’s called cost of living crisis.
Look at the states, many older people losing their homes, cause they can’t afford the medical expenses, food, and everything else. Middle America.
With the highest rates of child poverty in the world, a rich nation. Look familiar.
Let’s not forget how vocal she was on the failed referendums, she was on the committee on the wording, so she needs to own it.
@Paul Gorry: I don’t moan, groan and whimper. I am amused by people like you should blame everybody else for their failings. It is never your fault. Nothing to do with your decisions. As I said, and this can not be disputed, the vast majority of people who lives under the same governments as you have made a success of their lives and generations to come willdo the same. It is all about decisions and choices. You made poor ones. Own them and you might start making progress.
Michael Ring gave his party good advice & it wasn’t heeded. Anyone who watches Barry Ward & Jennifer Carroll Mc Neil in action, will know that they are the epitome of Woke ideology, along with Helen Mc Entee & Simon Harris, they are set to even surpass the Greens in how Woke they are. People have had enough of that crap, how about concentrating on the bread & butter issues, instead of jumping on every bandwagon as Carroll Mc Neil does.
They whinge. They moan. They blame. They are failures who will never change.
@Sun Rise: would you consider the famous Brian Cox a failure,
Yet he continually speaks out about the rich, poor divide.
Would you call him a whinge, a moan. Etc.
Also ran.
I’d like to give a shout out to Lorraine Hall, who led the Living Streets investment in Dun Laoghaire town. She was unsuccessful last night, but her day will come.
I hope as other parties do their selections around the country, that The Journal give them equal coverage. Its only fair.
@Collette Byrne: Brian Cox speaks with intelligence. He is in no way comparable to those who post bitter waffle on here because they have failed at life. Brian is an example of somebody who made very good decisions in life. He does not whinge and moan at all.
@Sun Rise: he moans about the rich. And nit paying tax on their wealth. He is a good socialist.
None of us are better than anyone else on this earth.
So may get better opportunities that’s all.
have your say