Cork Fianna Fáil TD: Party’s handling of presidential candidate selection process a ‘circus’

The Cork TD who was first to endorse Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher’s campaign has described Fianna Fáil’s handling of its selection process as “a debacle” and “a circus".

Pádraig O’Sullivan, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central, told The Echo he believed the party leadership had allowed a vacuum to grow around the party’s intentions for next month’s presidential election.

He added that he believed Fianna Fáil had not had a fair and transparent contest to select its presidential candidate “until now”, and he criticised ministers who had endorsed former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin before the party’s nomination process had been finalised today.

“This is about getting the best candidate, the best candidate with the best experience, this is about a political party being able to have a fair and transparent contest, and I don’t believe we’ve had that up to now,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“I don’t see why ministers have been so quick to come out and endorse Jim Gavin when many of them haven’t even met him yet.

“I would have preferred a much fairer, cleaner contest and now at least the process is open.”

Mr O’Sullivan is considered close, both politically and personally, to Mr Kelleher, having succeeded him as a TD in Cork North Central when Mr Kelleher was elected to the European parliament in 2019.

Asked whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin had made an error in keeping his cards so close his chest all summer and in not consulting members on his plans, Mr O’Sullivan did not directly criticise the party leader.

“Micheál Martin is leader of the Fianna Fáil party and what he does is his prerogative as leader, he is entitled to do that,” he said.

“Personally, I feel if the process had been more transparent, if the vacuum that was there hadn’t been allowed to occur, we might have had a very different process.

“If I had been in his position, I would have articulated very clearly to people what was going on behind the scenes.”

He rejected accusations that Mr Kelleher had sidestepped the leadership to declare his own intention to seek the party nomination.

“As Billy rightly said last Friday, we were all unaware of a Jim Gavin candidacy, other than the occasional namedrop in the media, and he wasn’t the only name.

“Let’s be fair about it, there was a litany of names circulating, many of which were never put to bed one way or the other.

“The whole thing, for me, became a bit of a circus for a week or two there, and if the process and where things were at had been clearly outlined, it might have been different.”

Asked whether that “circus” had been of the leader’s making, Mr O’Sullivan repeated his contention that a vacuum had been allowed to develop.

“Particularly when you have politicians off for the summer and the Dáil is in recess, I don’t want to cast any aspersions on the media, but that is when a lot of stories appear that might not have any truth in them at all,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“It’s known as silly season for a reason, and if this had been handled better, I don’t think we would have had the debacle and the circus we have seen.”