Meath footballer considers FG election approach

MEATH footballer Graham Geraghty will decide over the next few days if he will stand as a candidate for Fine Gael in the Meath West, the party’s senior constituency strategist said last night.

Phil Hogan, who is also FG’s spokesman on enterprise, said that Mr Geraghty — who played in the International Rules tests against Australia — was considering the party’s offer.

If Mr Geraghty, who is based in Athboy, decides to stand alongside sitting FG TD Damien English in the constituency, he will become the second prominent GAA figure in seven days to have been recruited by a political party. On Thursday, former Dublin goalkeeper John O’Leary announced he would be a Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin North in next summer’s election.

The new Mayo football manager John O’Mahoney is also a Fine Gael candidate in the constituency. Fine Gael also approached former GAA president Sean Kelly in Kerry South and also reportedly asked Kerry football star Seamus Moynihan to stand.

Meath West, a new three-seater constituency has two Fianna Fáil TDs, Noel Dempsey and Johnny Brady, as well as FG’s Mr English. FG believes it can challenge for a second seat, but said it needed a high-profile candidate if it were to achieve that aim.

The news comes as a national opinion poll shows the higher levels of support for Fianna Fáil of recent months have been maintained. The Red C poll for The Sunday Business Post finds that Fianna Fáil continues to enjoy the support of 39% of voters (unchanged) compared with 23% for Fine Gael (also unchanged from last month).

Labour has increased from 10% to 12% and there is a marginal rise in support for the PDs, up a point to 4%.

Sinn Féin has dropped two points to 8% while the Greens have also dropped slightly, down to 7% from 8%. The independents remain unchanged at 7%.

Commenting on the poll, Mr Hogan said he would prefer if Fine Gael’s support was higher. However, he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics that Fine Gael support remained solid and he predicted the party would win more than 50 seats.

Meanwhile, on the same programme, Wicklow TD Mildred Fox, who will step down next year, said her organisation would decide in January what strategy it would adopt going into the General Election. There is speculation Ms Fox’s brother may run in her stead.