THERE was commotion in County Hall this week when a Fine Gael councillor accused the opposition of backing Special Olympics founder Mary Davis as a ‘blocking’ candidate in the race for presidency. In July, Fianna Fail and Independent county councillors gave their support to Ms Davis in her candidacy, while Fine Gael said they would not stand in her way but were backing their own contender, Gay Mitchell.
Davis now has the support of 12 local authorities in the country, eight more than the four needed to enter the race.
However, last week she said she would not be asking Limerick to free up their vote to support another candidate.
On Monday, Ms Davis again received the endorsement from opposition, with leader of Fianna Fail on the council, Cllr Michael Collins, saying: “she doesn’t need it, but we can’t go back on our word”.
This prompted an angry reaction from Fine Gael’s Cllr David Naughton, who claimed that Fianna Fail were supporting Davis as a ‘blocking’ candidate.
“She knew she had this council in her pockets and she went ahead and tied up other councils, and she was backed by Fianna Fail when they couldn’t get their own candidate.
“She’s a blocking candidate for Fianna Fail,” he argued.
This was rigourously denied by Cllr Collins. Leader of Fine Gael in the county, Cllr John Sheahan, said the argument could be made that she did not need the nomination.
“We said we would not stand in the way of Mary Davis, and will stand by that again and wish all the candidates well.
“The argument could be made that when the four councils were secured, the other nominations could come back to the field.
“The debate about the candidates who are in and out of the race has taken away from the process”.
Cllr Kevin Sheahan FF, said that the fact that the council were standing by their promise to back Mary Davis, proved them to be “people of our word”.
Meanwhile, Cathaoirleach Cllr Mary Harty, said that candidate Dana Rosemary Scanlan had decided to not attend the meeting as a nomination was not available to her.
“The charade with David Norris and Dana is not dealing with the real issues,” Labour Cllr Tomas Hannon, interjected.
“The system needs review”.
