Michael McDowell to represent Dan Keily in Kerry vote case

Former Tánaiste and senior counsel Michael McDowell is to represent a Kerry County Council candidate who is challenging the results of the last local elections in a case which has the potential to affect all future elections, it has been confirmed.

Dan Kiely — a former Fianna Fáil senator and an independent candidate who is disputing the result of the Listowel area local elections to Kerry County Council — is to have his case heard by five judges of the Supreme Court as a matter of urgency in the first such appeal in the history of the State, it was decided earlier this summer.

At least some of the issues raised had the potential to affect “all elections”, the Supreme Court found after after being asked by Mr Kiely’s legal team, barrister Liz Murphy and solicitor Paul O’Donoghue, a former Fianna Fáil councillor, whether the appeal should be heard in the Supreme Court or the new Court of Appeal.