A Fine Gael member has initiated a High Court challenge to a decision by party headquarters that only sitting councillors in the Dún Laoghaire electoral area may contest the local elections in June.
Naja Regan, a law graduate of Brighton Avenue, Monkstown, Dublin, claims the decision by the party leadership deprived her of an opportunity to contest the February 26th selection convention although she had been put forward as a candidate by the Monkstown Fine Gael branch.
In her proceedings, she is seeking an injunction requiring the party trustees, including leader Enda Kenny, to hold a new convention. She also wants a declaration the party has breached its own rules and constitution in depriving her of an opportunity to be selected.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy today granted permission to Ms Regan’s lawyers to serve short notice of the proceedings on the FG trustees and the case will be back before the High Court on Friday. The application for short service was made on an ex parte (one side only) basis.
Gerard Hogan SC, for Ms Regan, said he would be seeking an early trial of the proceedings in view of the fact the local elections will take place in June.
In an affidavit, Ms Regan said she was proposed and seconded at last Thursday’s convention but the guest chairperson had then informed the meeting a directive had been given by the FG executive council “to the effect or like effect” the three sitting councillors in Dún Laoghaire must be selected by the convention.
She said no vote was taken and this was a breach of party rules providing that eligible FG members have an express entitlement to vote at a convention.
She said those who have been properly nominated have an entitlement to be considered for selection by those entitled to vote, “subject only to the lawful directive of the executive council of the party.”
She had been legally advised the directive in this case was “a very clear violation” of the constitution and rules of the party on the basis, among other reasons, it cannot exclude a candidate from being voted on by identifying those to be selected by the convention.
Ms Regan said a very large number of other party members present at the meeting had objected to the directive. Had there been a vote, she believed she would have been selected, she said.
There was a previous attempt by the party’s executive council to impose candidates by way of interview but this option was dropped, and a convention convened, following correspondence between herself and the executive council, she added.
Concerned that a directive as to who could run would be imposed at the convention, Ms Regan said she had written to the party trustees whose solicitor informed her he did not know about anything about such a directive. She decided not to go to the courts at that point but to go to the convention.
Given what had happened and the proximity of the local elections, she said only an early trial of the issue will enable her to obtain an effective remedy.