FIANNA FÁIL should be trying to welcome the former Progressive Democrats TD and now Independent Senator Fiona O’Malley into the party, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs has said.
Asked in the course of an interview with The Irish Timesif there was a place for Ms O'Malley in the party, Mary Hanafin said: "I think there is and I think her heart is in Fianna Fáil, I've no doubt about that. And I think she's a great girl with a huge amount to give."
Ms Hanafin said it could be difficult for Ms O’Malley to find a constituency in which to run. There was no longer room in her own constituency of Dún Laoghaire, where Ms O’Malley lost her Dáil seat in 2007, as it was now a four-seater, “but there is room for her somewhere.”
Separately, The Irish Timeshas learned Ms O'Malley has already been approached by Fianna Fáil representatives with a view to her contesting the next general election in the Dublin Mid West constituency.
They believe she could target voters traditionally loyal to the Minister for Health and former Progressive Democrats leader Mary Harney. It is understood Ms Harney will not run again.
Asked if she believed Dublin Mid West could be an option for Ms O’Malley, Ms Hanafin said: “With Mary Harney not running there the next time, whether Fiona would see that she’d have enough of a base there, I don’t know. But I think we should be trying to welcome her back in, that would be my view.”
Ms O’Malley’s father, Des O’Malley, was expelled from Fianna Fáil and established the Progressive Democrats in 1985. The Progressive Democrats officially folded on December 11th this year after the deadline for objections to the cancellation of the party’s registration in the Register of Political Parties passed.
Consideration is understood to have been given to running Ms O’Malley in Limerick, where she was born and went to school. Dublin South has also been mentioned informally.
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