Fianna Fail backs down on female-only plan

Fianna Fáil has backed down on mooted plans to order party members to pick a female general election candidate in a tightly contested constituency after a legal threat from a male councillor who claimed he was being blocked from running.

The party will today tell members in Dún Laoghaire they can choose any candidate out of councillors Kate Feeney, Mary Hanafin, and Cormac Devlin at its selection convention on Monday night, following a row which saw the party given a deadline of yesterday to cancel the suggested woman-only plan.

The mooted policy, which a party spokesperson stressed last night was never formally stated and simply rumoured, was based on Fianna Fáil likely only winning one of three available seats and the new 30% female candidate gender quotas system.