Renua’s newest candidate recently considered joining Sinn Féin

Renua Ireland’s first attempt at winning a Dáil seat has already been hit by controversy, after it was claimed the party’s newest candidate considered joining Sinn Féin just weeks ago.

At his Carlow-Kilkenny by-election campaign launch yesterday ex-Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick McKee, 26, said a January meeting with a Sinn Féin member where he allegedly sounded out the party on a move was “just coffee”.

The vice-chair of Kilkenny county council was elected as a Fianna Fáil candidate during last May’s local elections, before leaving in recent days — and after the party had chosen Bobby Aylward as its candidate —to sign-up with Renua Ireland.