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SENATOR AVERIL POWER has announced she is leaving Fianna Fáil.
She made the announcement this afternoon at Leinster House.
Power was elected to the Seanad in 2011, where she was the party’s spokesperson on education and skills.
She will serve out the remainder of her term as an independent Senator and said he has “no intention” of joining another political party.
The news will come as a blow to Fianna Fáil, who had received a boost over the weekend with Bobby Aylward winning the Carlow-Kilkenny by-election.
Power was one of the favourites to be chosen as Fianna Fáil’s general election candidate in Dublin Bay North, where she would have faced competition from former minister Seán Haughey, and councillors Deirdre Heney and Tom Brabazon.
She unsuccessfully contested the 2011 general election in the Dublin North–East constituency.
The senator has clashed with party leader Micheál Martin in the past over the lack of female representation in Fianna Fáil.
In her announcement, Power said the party ”lacks vision, courage and leadership”, describing Martin as “a leader without any followers”.
Power was extremely critical of the party, saying it “doesn’t know what it stands for and lacks credible policies on most major issues” and “is afraid of taking clear positions in key debates for fear of losing support”.
She said Martin’s frontbench “are all pulling in different directions and prioritising their personal political success over the needs of the party and the country”.
Power said the party is “simply not fit for government”.
The senator was particularly active in campaigning for a Yes vote in the same-sex marriage referendum.
She said the Fianna Fáil’s approach to the referendum was cowardly and cynical, and symbolises “everything that is wrong with the party”.
Power told reporters:
I know I would have a strong chance of being elected for Fianna Fáil in the next election. But I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to be a Fianna Fáil TD. I want to be true to myself and have the courage to walk away from the party.
I am therefore resigning from Fianna Fáil, effective immediately.
I am doing so with a heavy heart as I have many good friends in the party. I am also immensely grateful to everybody who has supported me over the last few years.
It was not an easy decision to make but I am convinced it is the right thing to do.
Having lost my faith in Fianna Fáil, I cannot in good conscience knock on doors in Dublin Bay North and ask people to vote for the party. In my view, they are simply not fit for government.
https://vine.co/v/eqEgzalq9Xt
During her time in the Seanad, Power has co-sponsored a bill that proposes giving adoptees greater identity rights, such as access to their birth cert, and proposed a motion to recognise the State of Palestine.
Power has removed all references to Fianna Fáil from her Twitter bio, and her website is down. She is married to Irish Independent editor Fionnan Sheahan.
Fianna Fáil Castlebar councillor Lisa Chambers said the timing of Power’s announcement is “opportunistic and is clearly the start of her [general election] campaign”.
Chambers said Power’s decision to not tell other people in the party beforehand was “a poor way to treat your colleagues”.
However, she said she was “upset to see her go” as “she was a great advocate for women in the party”.
- with reporting from Hugh O’Connell
Originally published: 12pm
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That roughly a third of renters would support this government is certainly surprising.
@P. J.: I wonder if some voting boxes went astray in transport? Really surprised at some of the outcomes so far… anyway, that’s my conspiracy bit for the week.
@Lydia Mcloughlin:
Haha hahaha hahahaha haha hahaha hahahaha haha hahaha
@Lydia Mcloughlin: doubtfull as every box that leaves and goes to counting centres has a garda escort
@Lydia Mcloughlin: lol
It seems, Sinn Fein are afraid that voters might bring up their unsavoury past at the doorstep. Such as support for Garda killers, robberies of banks and post offices, to fund their murders. Their protection racketeering, and drug dealing . I can see why they agents didn’t meet with the voters .
@Patrick MC Dermott: they didn’t have a bother at the last general election. They lost support because of their flip flopping. Soft approach to immigration anc suing journalists,
@brian madden: then why did ZERO seats go to immigration parties if immigration was an issue?
@9QRixo8H: Because you could see immigration as being an issue without supporting “solutions” offered by far right candidates
@9QRixo8H: Zero? They got two seats
@Paul Ferguson: Two out of ~950.
@Brendan O’Brien: They didn’t win many seats however they did secure a large portion of the vote. In previous elections they would have been the first eliminated but hung on in some areas until near the end. Their problem is that they have only one policy and aren’t well known in the local areas. There was one elected in my county but they are well known in the community doing a lot of volunteer work etc and that’s what gets you seats in local elections.
Sinn Fein lost the plot by allowing our culture to be eroded not taking a stronger stance on our neutrality & supporting the government in the recent referendum
It was the govts referendum and they won overall lol. The yes parties romped home while the no parties are licking wounds
@Criostoir Mac Raghnaill: How has ‘our’ culture been eroded, and what could SF have done to stop this?
Immigration is the issue that SF lost on . Speculating will not change it .
Australia has very stringent immigration laws and nobody refers to them as right wing and racists
@BL Music: Most racist place I ever lived in.
@BL Music: Anti-immigrant parties got a combined result of 0.9%.
@BL Music: The country was built on racism. Racism is still systemic and built into their politics and society. The reason we don’t hear of it here is more to do with our media, who owns them and the fact the most Australians are white.
@Uí Braonáin: what? Do you really believe our media would not take any opportunity to call white people racist.
The SF meltdown is beautiful
2019 election, SF 81 Seats, FG 255, FF 279. This time around SF will probably gain more seats than FF or FG. The GE in 2020 saw SF massively increase their share of the vote. Why, because people don’t bother voting in local elections because they don’t see the point. Did I vote, yes, did I vote SF, no. I don’t get why the FF and FG are so happy that over HALF the electorate are so demotivated by what they see that they don’t vote.
@Eddie Garvey: Probably because we’ve had covid, cost of living crisis, housing supply issues, energy crisis, war in ukraine, refugees, etc, since the last election. I think many understand that the country had to take repeated bites out of the biggest shit burger in living memory. No government, of any political formulation, would have done anything differently or had any effect on such huge external factors. It’s incredibly easy to crow from the opposition benches criticising, demanding, and pretending none of the above would affect everything here.
People see cynical opportunism, weather vane politics, and bluster for what it is. The centre ground is mostly holding. I’m grateful for that, at least.
Was chatting to a friend last week who was telling me how bad the government was. Asked him yesterday what he thought of the length of the European ballot paper to which he said he didn’t vote.
Absoulte joke how many of the government haters actually stayed at home and let others decide for them.
As for SF they don’t look to be much of an alternative to the current regime they blow with the wind last years racists are people with genuine concerns this year. I think a lot of their voter base is turning of them.
Why are people surprised with the vote for FG and FF? Not everybody is in the same position as those who can’t believe how votes have been cast. The majority of people in the country have made a decent life for themselves and are doing alright. Their votes reflect this. Some have not fared so well and their votes are reflected otherwise. We are not all in the same boat. Some have learned to paddle a bit better than others.
@Sun Rise:
Let’s see how hard children and grandchildren in future have to paddle because they give more of their wages to stuff the pockets of those who happen to have been born when life in Ireland was fair for those who worked.
The pretence of having assets inflated by speculative markets may give some a sense of comfort and achievement, but it comes at a price and is untenable for future generations.
So “mass migration” FFG romped home. While the anti-immigrant parties gained zero seats so far.
@9QRixo8H: if SF worked as hard as you are deflecting they wouldn’t be in this mess lol
@9QRixo8H: F mad!
SF for years courted the social welfare vote. Social welfare recipients are the main drivers behind the anti- immigration voice. This is where they lost support. I am not SF supporter, but I admire the fact that they didn’t go chasing that vote. Well done SF for not jumping on the bandwagon.
@ian: a very nice way of saying social welfare recipients are racists
GOOD BY MARY LU
I was wondering why The Wolfe Tones wasn’t blaring from Shinner radios lol
In my opinion the sf leadership adopting the blind pig headed entitled hubris of ffg alienated alot of people who would normally vote for them
There is a great danger in Ireland that politicians may misread the results as a sanction to continue with convictions that many in Europe have found awful. The misadventure of experimental theorists, where millions died while they were pursuing experiments to make a virus more infectious in humans, is a sign that society may be ready to alter its views on how politicians behave and how they are used.
The idea that May temperatures were the highest recorded in Ireland may be a low point for the politicians and media because the direction of travel is still towards a belief that controlling human behaviour is also controlling the weather/temperatures arising from academic politics.
I hope some commenters here are more considerate of what is being said.
Ask matt the thrasher why sf lost voters he knows everything
@Gerald Kelleher: In the future Ireland will have those who succeed in making a comfortable life for themselves and those who fail to do so. This is not a new phenomenon. It is the same all over the world and not unique to Ireland.
Well done there ian nice little attack on Irish people..Love the way Irish turn on Irish people. Imagine the looney right got in there.lol
Two girls with very little to no respect for their country whatsoever there.. look at the yolk on the right he lost three general elections
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