Tánaiste confident Fianna Fáil can claim three seats in Cork South Central

Fianna Fáil is confident it can take three seats in Cork South Central, party leader Micheál Martin has said.

The Tánaiste was speaking to The Echo during a Saturday morning canvass in Douglas Village Shopping Centre, on the first full day of the general election campaign.

Cork South Central is currently a four-seat constituency, but it will become a five-seater at the election, which will take place on Friday, November 29.

Fianna Fáil currently has two TDs in the constituency: Tánaiste, former taoiseach, and party leader, Micheál Martin, and former finance minister Michael McGrath, who is currently EU Commisioner designate for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law, and is not contesting the general election.

The party last month added Bishopstown-based businesswoman Margaret Keneally to its ticket in the Cork South Central constituency, and she joined Mr Martin and Carrigaline county councillor Seamus McGrath, brother of Michael, to contest the election.

A UCC graduate in Government and Public Policy, Ms Kenneally once interned in Mr Martin’s constituency office, and worked there for a period after graduating.

Ms Kenneally is financial controller in her family’s portfolio of tourism-based businesses, which includes the Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre in Sunday’s Well.

Mr Martin has been a TD in Cork South Central since 1989, and Seamus McGrath, who is hoping to win the seat his brother held since 2007, got the highest first-preference vote of any candidate in the June local elections, receiving 5,191 first preferences in the Carrigaline local electoral area, more than 3,000 above the quota of 2,057 votes.

Mr Martin said Fianna Fáil had added Ms Kenneally because it believed it had a chance of winning a third seat in the constituency.

“We’ve a strong ticket, Seamus McGrath is very strong, coming from the Carrigaline area, we know that from his local election polls, and I think will be elected, and there’s also some speculation that I’ll be elected quite well,” Mr Martin said.

“We added Margaret because we did win three seats before in Cork South Central, we believe we can win three seats again, and I will be giving Margaret a lot of support in the Bishopstown area and the south-west ward.” Fianna Fáil previously held three seats in Cork South Central more than two decades ago, between 1997 and 2002, when former lord mayor of Cork John Dennehy served alongside Batt O’Keeffe and Mr Martin.

Mr Martin said that despite a lot of analysis and commentary he had been reading, he believed a third seat in Cork South Central was within his party’s reach.

Ms Kenneally came from a very respected family, he added, and one which had enjoyed considerable success in business and had deep roots in the community.

“Margaret would make an outstanding member of Dáil Éireann, so I just would say to the analysts, the commentariat, ‘Watch this space’,” the Fianna Fáil leader said.