This article is from page 14 of the 2013-11-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
FINE Gael delegates at Friday’s night’s convention raised issues about a selection process some claimed “disempowered” the grass roots of the party. Others argued the process was unfair to certain nominees contesting the convention to select representatives for the party in the eight-seat West Clare constituency.
A directive was issued from the central executive of the party stating that three candidates were to be elected on the night.
There was a rider on the directive however that stated one candidate would have to be selected from the old Ennistymon area, and a second candidate selected from the Kildysert Electoral Area. Of the six nominees remaining after Cree’s Johnny Pilkington withdrew, just one – sitting county councillor Bill Slattery – came from the Ennistymon area.
County councillor Oliver Garry was the sole repetitive from the southern end of the constituency and so both councillors just required one vote to secure a place on the tickets.
Disgruntled delegates were annoyed that they were then limited to select just one candidate for this hotly-contested area, claiming it was undemocratic and limited their in- volvement in the selection process.
Supporters of Councillor Gabriel Keating felt that as the only other councillor nominated on the night he should not have been the only incumbent to go before the delegates.
More raised concerns that they were sidelined in the process and were not given true ownership of the process.