Former MEP Clare Daly will contest general election in highly competitive constituency
Clare Daly served as a TD for eight years from 2011 to 2019 before being elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She lost her seat in that parliament in June. File picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
The former TD and MEP Clare Daly has announced that she will contest the upcoming general election.
However, the former Dublin Fingal TD will move from her former base and go head-to-head with both Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe in Dublin Central.
The four-seat constituency will also see sitting TDs Gary Gannon and Neasa Hourigan seek re-election, along with rumours that head of the Hutch family Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch would seek election. Ms Daly's announcement makes it one of the most competitive constituencies in the upcoming election.
Ms Daly served as a TD for eight years from 2011 to 2019 before being elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She lost her seat in that parliament in June's elections.
In a statement, Ms Daly said that after 25 years as a public representative in North Dublin — at local, national, and European level — she had "thought long and hard about whether to contest the next general election". She said she and fellow former MEP Mick Wallace had been urged to run once more, though Mr Wallace has yet to decide if he will seek a Dáil return.
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"Many people, from all over the country, expressed the hope that myself and Mick Wallace would return to the Dáil. Like many, I am deeply concerned at the direction the country is going, and at the lack of any serious challenge, debate, or holding to account of the Government in the Dáil or the media.
"We have record inequality against the backdrop of record wealth; a housing and rents crisis that has forced many to emigrate while plunging others into poverty or homelessness, with affordable secure accommodation denied to even those with relatively decent employment.
"We have abject failure to take adequate steps to deal with the imminent dangers from climate change; the undermining of our neutrality and further integration into EU militarisation; and complete failure to take action against Israeli genocide in Gaza."
Ms Daly said she had handed off her area in Fingal to councillor Dean Mulligan but had been contacted by activists in Dublin Central. She said she was seeking to continue the "tradition of Tony Gregory and Maureen O'Sullivan".
"That approach is needed now more than ever, as the city is neglected and communities feel abandoned.
"I haven't got that record on the ground in Dublin Central, but those that do, like Maureen O'Sullivan, Councillor Cieran Perry, former MEP Patricia McKenna, East Wall's Joe Mooney, and others have put their faith in me as the best person to take their struggles into the Dáil, and I am humbled to accept and go forward on that basis.
"I represented Dublin Central as an MEP and had the pleasure of regularly bringing schools and community groups from the area over to Brussels on educational visits.
"I lived in the area for many years, in Glasnevin and Phibsborough in my student days, in Stoneybatter as a young worker, and now in Drumcondra. I am honoured to have been asked to be part of the fight to make Dublin Central a better place for everyone that lives there, and to take that fight to the Dáil."
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