A leading senator in the West of Ireland, Mr Jarlath McDonagh, caused a major upset for the Fine Gael organisation locally when he resigned from the party yesterday.
Mr McDonagh, who also holds a seat on Galway County Council, said he was resigning from Fine Gael because of what he described as "in-fighting and intrigue" in the party at local level.
"I am currently neither wanted nor appreciated in my own party constituency of West Galway.
"Effectively, I have been hunted and hounded out of Fine Gael," Mr McDonagh said.
His dispute with the party has its roots in last June's local elections when Fine Gael accused him of not backing a party strategy aimed at winning two council seats in his electoral area.
Although he topped the poll and Fine Gael got more first-preference votes than any other party, Fianna Fail took two out of the four seats with one each for Fine Gael and the PDs.
Mr McDonagh is expected to retain his seat in both the Seanad and Galway County Council.
