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FINE GAEL HAS selected councillors Naoise Ó Muirí and Aoibhinn Tormey to contest Dublin Bay North in the upcoming general election.
Fine Gael have now chosen nine general election candidates in six constituencies.
Richard Bruton has held a seat in the constituency since 2016, having previously been a TD for the Dublin North-Central constituency from 1982. In September, he announced that he would be standing down at the next general election.
Bruton was previously a cabinet minister, serving as Minister for Education. He was also Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party from July 2020 to September 2023.
He introduced the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2011. In 2023, at the time of his announcement of his departure from politics, then-Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael Leo Varadkar said it was to be Bruton’s “legacy”.
He was pivotal in getting the National Broadband Plan off the ground, and also published Ireland’s first Climate Action Plan.
Bruton is one of many Fine Gael politicians leaving politics behind, as former Tánaiste Simon Coveney announced this morning that he would not be contesting the next general election.
Now, Fine Gael are pinning their hopes upon two local councillors to step up and fill in the veteran politician’s seat.
Naoise Ó Muirí has served as a Dublin City councillor since 2004, and has previously served as Lord Mayor of Dublin. Ó Muirí is chair of Dublin City’s Environment Strategic Policy Committee and a governor and member of the Executive Committee of the National Maternity Hospital.
Aoibhinn Tormey is a county councillor representing the Howth-Malahide LEA on Fingal county council. She is a member of the Climate Action, Biodiversity, and Environment SPC, Howth SAAO Management Committee, and the Dublin North East Regional Health Forum.
Tormey is the daughter of former Dublin city councillor Dr Bill Tormey.
Fine Gael members selected the two councillors in a convention held in Hilton Dublin Airport, which was chaired by TD John Paul Phelan.
Commenting on his selection, Ó Muirí said that he was “delighted” and that if elected, he will push for the availability of housing, and the expansion of housing policy in areas like factory-built housing, zero VAT rating for new builds, and planning reform among other areas.
“As an experienced public representative in our area for 20 years I will work very hard to get elected and to represent the interests of the people of Dublin Bay North in Dáil Éireann,” he said.
Tormey, who has been a county councillor for over five years, said that her priorities and those of “the next generation of Fine Gael TDs” would be addressing challenges in the areas of climate change, delivering more housing, improving public transport, investment in education, improvements in the HSE, mental health and disability services, as well as business supports, access to childcare, and more gardaí on the streets.
She commended TD Richard Bruton for his work as a TD over the years, saying that Bruton has done the state a “tremendous service” over the course of his career.
“I hope to continue the high standard of representation the constituency has experienced from Richard Bruton TD,” she said.
“Drawing on my experience as a senior clinical psychologist in mental health services and over five years as a county councillor, I am committed to bringing a fresh perspective and dedicated leadership in tackling these issues.”
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So they did well at local and European elections, but that doesn’t be the same for general election. The arrogance grows strong as Yoda would say.
@John John: 62 days and he is still counting
@Mick McGuinness: winners are entitled to be arrogant, Shinners however, lol
@Mick McGuinness: Just like in 2019, FF/FG won 52% of the seats in the local elections, in the general election that followed FF and FG lost so much ground from the previous years local elections that they had to form a coalition for thge first time in their history, sworn enemies, so on that basis you definitely cannot take anything for granted in politics.
People should not waste their votes, the turnout at these elections was abysmal.
@Duffman: winners? FG and FF had a poorer showing in these local elections compared to 2019. Whereas SF increased their seats compared to 2019.
@Ian: Yes, Mary Lou was absolutely delighted with the result yesterday – “It has not been our day but we will have our day … we clearly have lessons to learn”. You need to compare this result with expectation, not with the abysmal showing of SF back in 2019.
@SYaxJ2Ts: There’s an easy metric: did David Cullinane shout ‘Up the Ra!’ at any point?
If not, SF’s showing was poor.
@Ian: still more than SF, granted numbers are not the Shinners strong point lol
This will come back to bite them, they should take advantage now of the voter apathy.
Patriots on here gone EXTREMELY quiet who kept repeating how they and everyone were going to vote for Ireland First / Führer Party / white Nationalism party / Irish people because something got to do with their failed referendums and migration. Well “mass immigration” FFG will romp home at the GE. The far-right no-seats parties have gone VERY quiet on their socials as they didn’t win a seat.
@9QRixo8H: You could almost hear a pin drop they’re gone that quiet. Meanwhile, over on the cesspit that is The Gript, the comments sections are hilarious! They’re crying foul and rigged elections hahahaha those people are utterly deluded.
@Ian: the ethnoNational party in total got 0.3%. The Führer party got 0.5%. Ireland First got 0.2%. Imagine that! Yet going by the comments on here they were due to get 110%. So much for the “openborders” the “unvetted” and “mass immigration” blah blah blah. The führer is dead.
@9QRixo8H: Well they did win a few seats and, more importantly, ate into SF support. All but guaranteeing two things. Another FF/FG led government and and the continued rise of the far right. FF/FG have willingly allowed the far right to grow to keep themselves in power and undermine SF. Just another example of irreparable damage they’ve done to this country.
@Gareth: ‘FF/FG have willingly allowed the far right to grow’???? How could they stop haters and racists from being haters and racists?
If the far right have taken votes from SF, it just goes to show that SF wasn’t really the left-wing party it claimed to be: it was far too reliant on the easy pleasures and prejudices of nationalism.
@Gareth: the top performing Far Right party got 0.5%. Hardly ate into SF or FFG’s support.
@9QRixo8H: brilliant piece of work by Simon Harris removing asylum seekers from ipo and canal area then sending 50 of them back to ni then cutting their money everyone fell for it his far right stance won the day
How come 26 EU countries, most of which held elections after us on Friday have their results done and dusted?
What is the hold up with Irish results?
Simon has the bit in his mouth now lol.
I really hope they do, could be the biggest blindside ever
We won’t go into power with fg we won’t call an early election
have your say