Fear the office of mayor will be a ‘flop and not a success’

A SENIOR Fianna Fail councillor has predicted the office of Limerick’s new directly elected mayor will be “a flop and not a success”.

Newcastle West councillor Michael Collins, who leads the party’s bloc on the local authority has also accused Fianna Fail nationally of showing a lack of “respect” to local members over its selection of former Chamber chief executive Dee Ryan as its candidate.

“Nobody asked me or my colleagues what I thought of the selection of a candidate. I think Fianna Fail headquarters should have consulted with the grass roots and especially the councillors who will ultimately have to work with whoever is elected mayor on June 7,” he said.

“I think the party did not respect me and my colleagues on council who have vast experience and know how this thing should work.”

Another long-serving Fianna Fail council member Kieran O’Hanlon admitted he probably won’t be campaigning for his party’s candidate in the upcoming mayoral election.

“I am not at all enthused by the whole thing. I’ll campaign, but only if I have time. I’m extremely busy - people will tell you that locally, I’m out and about all the time. I wouldn’t see myself having time to work on it,” he said referring to the mayoral election.

Cllr Collins added: “My focus now and my focus only is getting myself re-elected on June 7 and continuing the work I’ve done effectively the last 20 years.”

Fianna Fail has continued to stick with Ms Ryan as its mayoral candidate despite a series of historic posts on X, formerly Twitter, emerging after she announced her intention to run as the Fianna Fail candidate.

In these old posts from 2016, she questioned Tanaiste Micheal Martin’s leadership skills, and also reposted tweets from Fine Gael in 2016 which criticised the Soldiers of Destiny for its role in the 2008 economic crash.

Addressing the posts last month, Ms Ryan said she “had no difficulty in saying” her opinions of Fianna Fail and its leader have evolved, and “could not be more positive”.

“I remain unafraid to speak my mind and if the people of Limerick choose to do me the honour of electing me as their mayor, I can assure them I will be a strong voice in pursuing our shared agenda to make Limerick a better place,” she said.

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But Cllr Collins and Cllr O’Hanlon said personalised criticism of Mr Martin had caused disquiet. “I think it was disappointing,” said Cllr Collins.

“She was not a member of the party then and she certainly didn’t speak well of the party or party leader previously.”

Cllr O’Hanlon added: “It was disappointing to read she was critical of our party leader.” He also said many of his constituents might not go out to vote in June, given the number of contests on the same day.

Here in Limerick, voters will be asked to elect a mayor, local councillors, European parliament members as well as vote in a referendum. Cllr O’Hanlon said the local election should have been held on its own day.