Until around 4.30pm on Tuesday afternoon, the prevailing expectation within the Green Party was that the race to succeed Eamon Ryan would be between deputy leader Catherine Martin and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman.
Ms Martin withdrawing her name from the running via a social media post well and truly scuppered that prediction. However, there were still some in the party expecting a contested leadership race with names emerging on Wednesday.
There is a view within the party that Mr Ryan’s successor will have to be a Cabinet Minister.
Should it go ahead it is presumed that Mr O’Gorman, who has the busy children and integration ministerial brief, will be one of the candidates as the most senior Cabinet Minister who has not ruled themselves out.
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There were also suggestions that “super-junior” Minister for Agriculture Senator Pippa Hackett – who also sits at Cabinet – may be interested in contesting. She was similarly silent on her intentions on Tuesday.
In terms of who might run in the general election in a bid to retain Mr Ryan’s seat in Dublin Bay South there are at least three potential candidates – councillors Claire Byrne, Hazel Chu and Carolyn Moore.
All were elected to Dublin City Council earlier this month either topping the poll or being elected, in Ms Chu’s case, on the first count.
Ms Byrne, Mr Ryan’s parliamentary assistant, was the party’s candidate in the 2021 byelection in the constituency in 2021.
Ms Chu, a high-profile lord mayor of Dublin, had contested the Green Party’s selection convention ahead of the byelection but lost out to Ms Byrne.
The result of the byelection saw the future Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik winning the seat.
The Greens will have a battle on their hands to hang on to their seat in the constituency.
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