Kerry South TD Tom Fleming pulls out of the race after 30 years on ‘treadmill’

Independent TD for Kerry South, Tom Fleming, has pulled out of the general election race.

One of six sitting TDs contesting the election in the new five-seat constituency, which is a single-county constituency for the first time since 1937, Mr Fleming had been a member of the Independent Alliance.

Mr Fleming left Fianna Fáil in late 2010 and won a seat as an Independent in 2011, having narrowly failed in two previous attempts as the running mate of the former minister John O’Donoghue.

Mr Fleming said the fact that he had not covered the ground in much of Kerry North in the huge new single constituency was the principal reason for his decision to pull out.

However, the father of three also felt it was time to take a breather, having fought 10 elections in 30 years.

“I have been a long time on the treadmill,” Mr Fleming, 63, said last night.

Treatment for an old ankle injury prevented him from campaigning in Kerry North in the autumn, before the Dáil resumed.

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This was when he should have been trying to cover the constituency, he said.

“I’d be really playing catch-up.

As it is, I came to the conclusion that I would not proceed because I was lagging behind a bit, probably, with regards to the North Kerry constituency which I have not gone into physically at all.

“I was carrying out my role as a very proactive TD.”

The news has come as a shock, even to seasoned political observers across Kerry.

Mr Fleming had attended a public meeting on Wednesday night in Rathmore on the Cork-Kerry border to support a campaign for a GP for Rathmore.

He also attended a public meeting of all candidates in Castleisland last night

Political observers say his withdrawal will benefit Fianna Fáil and Independent Michael Healy-Rae.

One observer said the whole of east Kerry, into Killarney and up to Castleisland — the second and fourth-biggest towns in Kerry — has “no-one running all along the Cork border and up to the Limerick border”.

Fine Gael mayor of Killarney Municipal District, Castleisland resident Bobby O’Connell said: “Tom Fleming’s announcement is a shock. He is the local deputy, very well supported here, and he has given great service to Kerry County Council and to the people here.”

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