Sunday Times Story MEPs to Return

[Rivershannon]

According to todays Sunday Times FG are to invite three of thrir MEPS to return to fight the General Election. McGuinness in Dublin North or Kildare South, Coveney in Cork and Mitchell in a Dublin Constituency.

Also Francis Fitzgerald is to be encouraged to consider Dublin Mid West.

Smart move I think as all three MEPS and Francis are vote getters with a National Profile.

[TheChief]

Also Francis Fitzgerald is to be encouraged to consider Dublin Mid West

What ?!?!?!

[agora]

According to todays Sunday Times FG are to invite three of thrir MEPS to return to fight the General Election. McGuinness in Dublin North or Kildare South, Coveney in Cork and Mitchell in a Dublin Constituency.

Also Francis Fitzgerald is to be encouraged to consider Dublin Mid West.

Smart move I think as all three MEPS and Francis are vote getters with a National Profile.

It's an absolute disgrace. They were elected as MEPs, they should stick to the job in Europe. This is a blatant case of party interests being put before the interests of the people. There should be a total ban on MEPs either double jobbing or returning half way through their term to contest Dail elections. This action shows a total lack of responsibility on the part of FG and demonstrates the absence of respect for the institutions of the EU which is the hallmark of so many of our so-called "pro-European" politicians. For shame!

[ChrIreland]

According to todays Sunday Times FG are to invite three of thrir MEPS to return to fight the General Election. McGuinness in Dublin North or Kildare South, Coveney in Cork and Mitchell in a Dublin Constituency.

Also Francis Fitzgerald is to be encouraged to consider Dublin Mid West.

Smart move I think as all three MEPS and Francis are vote getters with a National Profile.

It's an absolute disgrace. They were elected as MEPs, they should stick to the job in Europe. This is a blatant case of party interests being put before the interests of the people. There should be a total ban on MEPs either double jobbing or returning half way through their term to contest Dail elections. This action shows a total lack of responsibility on the part of FG and demonstrates the absence of respect for the institutions of the EU which is the hallmark of so many of our so-called "pro-European" politicians. For shame!

Guess the furore that would be created by FGT if Mary Lou was asked to do the same.

[NGTR]

There should be a total ban on MEPs either double jobbing or returning half way through their term to contest Dail elections.

This action shows a total lack of responsibility on the part of FG and demonstrates the absence of respect for the institutions of the EU which is the hallmark of so many of our so-called "pro-European" politicians. For shame!

First of all that change will come into place for the next election.

Secondly the article was extreme rumour with pretty bad sourcing other than a senior Fine Gael source. Neither Coveney or Mitchell pledged to see out a full term in Europe whilst Mairead has stated she is undecided.

My preference would be for Gay to run in Dublin South Central in order to bring in Catherine Byrne as a running mate. I'd like to see Mairead stay in Europe as there are a plethora of local candidates with good chances throughout Leinster. As for Coveney I think it could be better in the long term for him to stay in Europe allowing Clune to win back her seat & give Buttimer a good chance to claim one for himself. Coveney is still very young whilst he may miss out on a Ministerial job if Fine Gael come thru the next election he'll be seen as a party stalwart that id his bit in 2004 who is already seen as a potential leader.

I also think such a strategy would be good in the short-term but not in the long run as we'd suffer in the next Euros as well as in future GEs

[hiding behind a poster]

Also Francis Fitzgerald is to be encouraged to consider Dublin Mid West.

Where she'd have no chance whatsoever.

[agora]

First of all that change will come into place for the next election.

I know there's a ban on the dual mandate coming in, but wasn't aware that it also prohibited candidates abandoning their EP seat to run in a Dail election. Does it?

[jjcarroll]

I think that Simon Coveney would be best off staying in the European Parliament and making an impact there. Reports I have heard from people (including a member of the UK Labour Party National Executive) have been very positive about the work he is doing on the Human Rights group. He deserves alot of credit for his work on the China Arms Embargo, particularly as the government were supporting the lifting of the arms embargo.

[rockofcashel]

My question is....


How poor are the political writers in the Sunday Times. This has been speculated on here since the local and European elections last year, numerous times.

It also makes an absolute joke of FG's claims that they have a host of new candidates with which to win seats in the next GE, if they have to call on their big names from Europe to come back and shore up seats.

Ditto goes for the likes of Nora Owen in DN, Sean whatisname in DL, and Shatter in Dublin South


New candidates my ar*se . Still they can't keep recycling them forever

[NGTR]

But all this is peculation rock generated by the press!

Very few within Fine Gael believe these people will run again but if they attend any party function suddenly its being mooted about that they'll rin in the next election.

Thing is we do have a plethora of new candidates but the press would rather discuss previous candidates as its the easier option!