FG poll-topper `disappointed' at Noonan's Cork-visit omission

Was the Fine Gael poll-topper in Cork snubbed by his party leader yesterday?

Was the Fine Gael poll-topper in Cork snubbed by his party leader yesterday?

Clearly, Mr Bernard Allen - the Cork North Central TD who recently offered himself as a successor to Mr John Bruton - thought he was.

It appears that when Mr Noonan and the party's spokeswoman on the environment, Ms Deirdre Clune, met in Cork to launch Fine Gael's new strategy on the environment, they forgot to tell Mr Allen about it.

He learned that the launch was taking place only when a journalist told him. "I was quite taken aback. I telephoned Michael Noonan's office to ask what was going on and he later got in contact and apologised, saying that there had been a mistake," Mr Allen said.

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Mr Noonan explained that he had come to Cork - specifically to Cork South Central, Ms Clune's constituency - to launch the document and that he would have ample opportunity in the future to visit Mr Allen in Cork North Central.

But Mr Allen declared: "I was disappointed that as the Fine Gael poll-topper in the city I wasn't informed of the visit."