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.