Sinn Féin seek Council cooption nominations

Sinn Féin headquarters says it will be a matter for the local Ard Comhairle whether gender quotas are applied when the party holds its convention to replace former Councillor Eugene Greenan to Cavan County Council later this month.
Mr Greenan shocked local political circles when he submitted his letter of resignation to council chief executive Tommy Ryan at the end of June.
He had served just 37 months as an elected representative, after being elected to the Cavan-Belturbet Municipal District in the 2014 local election. The first time councillor was elected on the eighth count with more than 1,000 votes.
The local Sinn Féin party earlier this week wrote to prospective candidates seeking to take Mr Greenan's place, with a convention expected to take place towards the end of the month, August 29-30. It's envisaged any co-option would take place at the September meeting of Cavan County Council.
It will be the third new face to be co-opted by the party to their ranks on Cavan County Council in the past five years, following the exit of Pauline Tully, Grainne Brady, and now Mr Greenan. Sitting councillor Noel Connell replaced Ms Brady, and was re-elected in the Ballyjamesduff-Virginia Municipal District in 2014.
A spokesperson said the party are in the “process of organising” a convention for the co-option to replace Mr Greenan.
“We envisage this will happen before the end of the month and that the co-option will be made at the September meeting of Cavan County Council,” he said.
However, he ruled out the potential of applying a gender quota on choosing who will represent the party going forward, only to say: “Sinn Féin has a strong record of promoting gender equality and for all conventions we aim to identify and support women who may want to go forward for electoral office.”
Cllr Connell, who serves as the party chairman in Cavan, told The Anglo-Celt: “We will go by the rules, we we will go to convention and to our members, and we will do it the same as everyone else.”
He added: “It will come down to the best person available who can represent our party and the people of Cavan-Belturbet. Whether that is a man or woman, we look forward to the process. We have an active party and we are confident we can have somebody positioned for co-option in September.
“I want to personally thank Eugene for the time and effort he put into the party and on behalf of his constituents,” said Cllr Connell.
At the time, Mr Greenan pointed to pressing commitments outside of council life as reasons for his decision, and said his decision was not without regret: “I will miss calling the council and government ministers to account on important matters and I will miss the sense of satisfaction from helping a constituent who finds themselves in difficulty.”