Four People in Contention for Two Vacant Local Authority Seats

A battle within Fianna Fail is about to begin to fill the vacant seats on Wicklow County Council and Greystones Town Council arising from the appointment of Deputy Dick Roche to the Junior Ministry for Europe.

Normally when a Council seat becomes vacant there is general agreement on who should fill the vacancy and the procedure goes

Minister Dick Roche's Council seat is Vacant

through without any major argument.

However, the filling of these seats appears to be sparking off a battle royale within the party. Traditionally, when a vacancy arises as a result of a councillor getting a ministry the seat is filled by the preferred choice of the particular Minister.

However, two of the four seeking the seats, Pat Killelea and Thelma Cloake are closest to Dick Roche in the north Wicklow area while the other two, sitting Town Councillor Kathleen Kelleher and former Councillor Eilo Vickers feel that their past records would make them the better public representatives.

The people who will eventually take the seats will have to be nominated by their party in the area, cumann members in Greystones for the Town Council seat and all the cumainn from Greystones, Delgany and Kilcoole in the case of the County Council seat.

With the matter under contention, it is unlikely that Fianna Fail headquarters will be in a major rush to settle the matter.