Former Cork Labour stalwart Noel McCarthy set to join Fine Gael ranks
Cllr Noel McCarthy left Labour a couple of weeks ago after becoming disillusioned with the party and has been approached by Fine Gael to run as a candidate in the Cork East constituency alongside its sitting TDs David Stanton and Tom Barry.
Mr McCarthy, who runs an off-licence in Fermoy, admitted he was talking to Fine Gael but said he would not be making any further comment until these talks had concluded.
The Irish Examiner understands he is close to signing a deal with the dominant government party.
Mr McCarthy would be ideally placed to hoover up votes as he is extremely popular and is geographically midway between Mallow-based Mr Barry and Mr Stanton, who is based in Midleton.
At the last local elections he got one of the highest first preference votes of anybody in the country and bucked the anti-Labour trend which saw their representation on the county council reduced from seven to two.
He got 3,511 first preferences — many of which are understood to be personal votes rather than for the Labour Party — and was well ahead of Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe (2,923) who has been chosen by Fianna Fáil to contest the general election.
Fine Gael insiders say they believe Mr McCarthy will cause significant damages to Mr O’Keeffe’s voting-getting.
Some Fianna Fáil insiders say Mr O’Keeffe’s chances of making it to the Dáil could also be reduced if his own party adds another candidate to the ticket.
It’s believed the party is looking at gender balance and the possibility of adding on a woman candidate from the southern side of the constituency to the ticket.
In the 2011 general election the two candidate strategy backfired for Fianna Fáil. At that time Mr O’Keeffe got 5,030 first preferences and former TD Michael Ahern got 4,618 — yet neither of them were elected.
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