EDITORIAL: Duffy takes big gamble joining Fine Gael

IT HAD been rumoured for weeks that Fine Gael were going to add extra candidates to their ticket for the Mayo constituency in the upcoming general election – and so it transpired last Friday morning with the news that Cllr Mark Duffy and CEO of Mayo Roscommon Hospice Martina Jennings were announced as their third and fourth candidates.
Sitting TD Alan Dillon and Westport’s Keira Keogh had been selected at the party’s convention last month and now with two extra candidates, there is no doubt that the party are looking at taking three seats from the five that are now available in the Mayo constituency.
Fianna Fáil look set to stick with their two candidate strategy and will want to see both Dara Calleary and Lisa Chambers elected while Sinn Féin look set to probably just run sitting TD Rose Conway Walsh. Independents Patsy O’Brien and Chris Maxwell will also be secretly fancying their chances of taking a seat while Aontú’s Paul Lawless and another Independent Stephen Kerr will be looking at taking a sizeable chunk of the Mayo votes available.

Very competitive
All in all, Mayo is looking at being one of the most competitive constituencies in the country when the election date is finally nailed down. The general consensus is that the election will take place on a date in late November so all the candidates will be looking at a canvass of the county in the space of four or possibly five weeks.
Cllr Mark Duffy is definitely taking a big gamble in joining Fine Gael. The 32 year old has over five years behind him as a high profile Independent on Mayo County Council and he stated last week that he had held extensive negotiations and discussions with Fine Gael members, the Fine Gael organisation locally as well as Taoiseach Simon Harris to get firm commitments on the delivery of long-sought-after projects for Mayo.
However, Fine Gael has been in Government for the last eleven years and there can be no doubt that high profile TDs like Michael Ring and Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage Alan Dillon have already been seeking delivery for Mayo. Duffy will be going toe-to-toe in Ballina with another government minister, Dara Calleary, but he will be hoping that he can increase on the 5,435 votes which Michelle Mulherin received in the General Election 2020.

South Mayo battle
It would seem Fine Gael strategists felt it very necessary to have a high profile candidate in the south Mayo region to avoid their former councillor Patsy O’Brien getting a free run in that area of the constituency and Martina Jennings will certainly be looking to pick up numbers one all over the county.
She will certainly be popular in the boxes from the county town too where she is based with Mayo Roscommon Hospice and how Fine Gael manage their strategy in Castlebar will be very interesting.
Keira Keogh will be hoping too that the backing she is receiving from the retiring Michael Ring will get her into the race for a seat, but something will have to give, as not even the most optimistic of Fine Gael supporters could see the party taking four of the five seats available. We are set for a very interesting few weeks on the Mayo political scene once Simon Harris finally makes the call on the election date.