JOHN PERRY, the Fine Gael TD “deselected” at a convention on Friday, has called on the taoiseach to honour his word and add him as a general election candidate in Sligo-Leitrim.
However, Fine Gael sources have said Perry, a former junior minister for small business, will not be added by the party’s national executive. This is because a two-candidate strategy is regarded as the best option to hold the party’s two seats in the reconfigured constituency.
Perry came fourth of four candidates at a convention in Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim, on Friday but was just 10 votes behind Tony McLoughlin, his fellow Sligo TD. The party’s election strategy committee had instructed the convention to select one candidate from Leitrim and one from Sligo.
“Richard Bruton, the enterprise minister, was added after he failed to get selected in Dublin Bay North,” Perry said. “The precedent has been set. The taoiseach told us in the Fine Gael party rooms that every sitting TD would be entitled to stand. He is a man of his word and I expect to be added to the ticket.”
However, a source close to the Fine Gael national executive said Enda Kenny had only guaranteed every sitting TD the right to be selected by their constituency convention. “A three-candidate strategy would be mad here,” he said. “It is a new constituency and our best strategy is one candidate in Sligo and one in Leitrim.”
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Perry said that more than 50 party delegates from Tubbercurry, Co Sligo — 12 miles from his Ballymote home — were excluded because of a row with the party over the abortion legislation passed in 2013. Members of the Tubbercurry branch withheld their subscription fees in protest at the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act.
Another 50 delegates from Enniscrone in west Sligo were moved in a restructuring of the party organisation.
Fine Gael lost seats to Fianna Fail in the local elections in Sligo last year, while Sinn Fein made significant gains in Co Leitrim. Sligo-Leitrim is the largest geographical constituency in the country taking in a swathe of south Co Donegal and part of west Cavan.
In 2013, Perry and his wife consented to a judgment of €2.47m against them at the Commercial Court over unpaid loans to Danske Bank. The TD later reached an agreement with the bank in respect of his outstanding loans.