Enterprise Minister Peter Burke is to chair tonight’s selection convention to choose the Fine Gael candidate for the next General Election in South Tipperary. The convention will be held in Halla na Feile in Cashel and is due to start at 8pm.
The party ran two candidates in the 2020 General Election, Garret Ahearn and Mary Newman – neither were successful. Garret Ahearn was subsequently elected to the Seanad. Cllr Michael Murphy, based in Clonmel, is seeking the party nomination as is Senator Ahearn. It is understood that party headquarters favours a strategy of putting only one candidate up for the contest for the General Election which must be held no later than March 2025.
The Tipperary Constituency has been revised since the last election and instead of electing 5 TDs for the county of Tipperary there will now be two separate Constituencies North and South with each electing 3 TDs. Due to population increase the county is entitled to an extra TD under the regulations in the Constitution. The existing TDs with a South Tipperary base are Mattie McGrath Rural Independent and Martin Bowne Sinn Fein.
