Three Kildare politicians line up to take retiring TD's seat
The race for the nomination to succeed Catherine Murphy as the Social Democrats TD for Kildare North gets underway this week.
Three members of Kildare County Council - Nuala Killeen, Bill Clear and Aidan Farrelly - will put their names forward by tomorrow’s (July 10) deadline.
The party’s selection process first invites expression of interest and this is followed by interviews before the names of those seeking the nomination are put to the party membership, which in turn decides who will contest the seat.
The Social Democrats are in rude good health right now.
Catherine Murphy is a popular politician who topped the poll in the 2020 General Election, taking 9,808 first preference votes and was elected on the third count.
Four years previously she fared even better, comfortably exceeding the quota on the first count with her first preference share approaching 23%.
More recently the SDs had a very good outing in the local elections locally.
Seven of the eight candidates who ran in Kildare for the party took a seat.
Celbridge’s Nuala Killeen took 29% of first preferences in the three se
at Leixlip area and was elected on the first count with something to spare.
In the Naas area, Bill Clear topped the poll, taking just over 14% of first preferences cast.
Prosperous-based Aidan Farrelly came third in terms of first preferences in the Clane area also with 14% and he was elected on the eighth count.
All three councillors were first elected in 2019 to Kildare County Council and all of them put in improved performances in June when compared with the 2019 poll.
Killeen’s first preference vote increased by 13%, Clear’s rose by 6.6% and Farrelly’s went up by 1.3%.