FF’s Kirk will not seek re-election

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has paid tribute to former Ceann Comhairle and Louth deputy Seamus Kirk, 69, who confirmed yesterday he will not be going forward as a candidate in the next general election.

The decision, made on health grounds, leaves the party having to campaign to retain his Louth seat. Mr Kirk had been automatically deemed elected at the last general election.

His decision, he said, was made after consulting with his family and was due to his need to focus on personal health matters.

Mr Kirk had problems associated with a serious leg injury sustained when he was playing for the Louth team in a GAA match in Drogheda in 1972.

Mr Kirk said if it was not for his deteriorating health, he would “like to run again but I would not be physically able for the campaign”.

He is optimistic about the party’s chance of keeping a seat and said, based on performance in the local elections in May, “the party should be able to retain a seat for Fianna Fáil in Louth”.

Mr Martin said Mr Kirk, first elected 32 years ago, “has always been a strong advocate for rural communities and helped to shape much of Fianna Fáil’s policy in agriculture and horticulture”.

Mr Kirk was Ceann Comhairle from 2009 to 2011 and is a former minister of state in the department of agriculture.

Fianna Fáil knows it cannot take a seat in Louth for granted next time around. Until the last general election, the party had two seats in what was until then a four-seat constituency but is now a five-seater.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams topped the poll and Fine Gael increased its number of TDs to two in the 2011 election.

It had been widely expected Sinn Féin would run two candidates at the next election. But Mr Kirk bowing out of politics has led to speculation that Sinn Féin could even run three candidates.