Fiona Ryan fills vacant seat on city council

Cork City Council finally voted last night to fill a vacant council seat after new legal advice said it was the “option of least risk”.

Councillors voted 19 for, two against, with Fine Gael abstaining, to approve the co-option of Anti Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit (AAA/PBP) nominee Fiona Ryan to fill the casual vacancy arising out of the election of Mick Barry TD, after spending almost an hour in-committee considering legal advice in relation to the stalled process.

The move was challenged over a month ago by the Labour Party which questioned the validity of the AAA/PBP nomination of Mr Barry’s replacement, given that he was nominated to run for the council in 2014 by the AAA, which deregistered as a political party last year, after merging with PBP.