Coveney: Ambition may have cost party seats
The party actually lost three seats on Ireland’s largest local authority, dropping from 25 to 22.
It means that Fine Gael has lost the chance of a majority on the 48-seater council.
Furthermore, the party will probably have to court the Independents – who increased from just one to six seats – if it is to remain in control of the forum.
Three senior FG county councillors lost their seats – Aileen Pyne (Fermoy), Tom Sheahan (Mallow) and John O’Shea (Bantry).
In those constituencies, FG ran more candidates than in the 2004 elections, in the confident hope the expected swing against the Government would yield more seats.
However, that didn’t work. In fact in some cases sitting FG councillors lost their seats to their new running mates.
“The party’s vote hasn’t gone down in the county but, five years ago, we got more seats. If we said we would hold onto what we had without trying we would never expand,” Mr Coveney said.
He pointed out that FG increased its number of candidates in other parts of the country and had secured extra seats.
“Politics is a cruel and difficult business. Putting in extra candidates in other parts of the country paid off handsomely in several places. In Cork it didn’t, which is regrettable,” the Cork South Central TD said.
Several years ago, he served on the county council with Ms Pyne and Mr Sheahan.
“I have huge sympathy for Aileen Pyne. I am very fond of her. I also worked with Tommy Sheahan and I feel very sorry for him,” Mr Coveney said.
He added that new and younger candidates put in “enthusiastic campaigns”, which put some of the more experienced county councillors under pressure.
“Fine Gael has an ambition to become the largest party in the State and we can’t do that without trying to maximise the number of public representatives we have,” he said.
He added that competition is also healthy.
Mr Coveney said he believed that Fine Gael members would start “constructive” dialogue with the Independents in order to ensure they can get a working majority on the county council.
In times gone past they could have relied on Labour for support, but this has waned in recent years.
Cllr Paula Desmond, the Labour leader on the county council, has launched a number of attacks on Fine Gael in recent years and relationships between the two parties could not be described as cordial.
