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A COMPLAINT by veteran Kerry Fianna Fail councillor Michael Cahill that he was shafted by his colleagues when they decided who would be Mayor of Kerry will not be acted on by party headquarters, KillarneyToday.com can reveal.
Cllr Cahill had said he had raised the issue with Fianna Fail General Secretary, Sean Dorgan, and he was waiting to hear back from him.
“He knows every single thing about this and there is going to be an inquiry,” the Rossbeigh politician said yesterday.
But it can now be confirmed that there will be no inquiry and the matter will have to be resolved locally.
In a written reply to questions submitted by KillarneyToday.com, an official party spokesperson said: “While Cllr Cahill has expressed concerns to party headquarters, decisions regarding formation of council groupings and internal group elections are a matter solely for the local Fianna Fail council grouping. As such there is no investigation ongoing.”
The statement passes responsibility for addressing the stand-off back to the 10 elected members in Kerry and headquarters is effectively instructing them to sort out their own problems,
Cllr Cahill was seething when he was excluded from an agreement to become mayor on one of the five years of the newly elected 33-member council after a pact was agreed between his party and Fine Gael to control who would receive the chain of office.
The 53-year-old councillor went public with a complaint that he had been shafted by party colleagues.
It is understood that, in keeping with party arrangements, the three FF members in the Kenmare area – Cllr Cahill, Cllr Norma Moriarty and Cllr John Francis Flynn – were asked to decide between themselves who would be proposed to take the chair for the 2022/23 term and Cllr Flynn won on a 2-1 vote.
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A furious Cllr Cahill later said that Sinn Féin’s Toiréasa Ferris had made him an offer that would have seen him become mayor.
“It was an amazing offer, totally out of the blue,” he told Radio Kerry, acknowledging that he would have to resign from Fianna Fail or be fired if he had accepted so he opted to support Cllr Niall Kelleher as mayor.
Cllr Cahill said he is aware of the cut and thrust nature of politics but he believes that denying him the opportunity to become mayor has caused “untold damage” to Fianna Fail in Kerry.
“There is a lot of scratching at heads at the moment and I have received overwhelming support from party grassroots all over Kerry and from officers of the Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair,” he stated.
Asked by Radio Kerry’s Jerry O’Sullivan why he felt he had an entitlement or a “God-given right” to be mayor, when there are 10 Fianna Fail members on the council, Cllr Cahill said it was always went on seniority.
“The goalposts were moved,” he remarked.
Cllr Cahill previously quit Fianna Fail in 2011 and worked for and supported breakaway Independent TD Tom Fleming but he rejoined the party five years later.
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