Minister 'happy' with Fine Gael effort to retain seat in Cavan Monaghan

'David Maxwell is going to be elected to Dáil Éireann to replace me'

Minister Heather Humphreys has arrived at the count centre in Cavan where the contest between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and Aontú is heating up ahead of the clinch on those five much-coveted constituency seats in Dáil Eireann.

The Minister holds her title until the new Dáil resumes in a few weeks time but she has stepped aside as Deputy Leader of Fine Gael, the position now held by Minister Helen McEntee who retained her seat in Meath East. Humphreys announced her retirement from politics eight weeks ago and immediately got behind Monaghan Cllr David Maxwell who is now well on his way taking the Fine Geal seat here.

Speaking to the Celt, Minister Humphreys said she is feeling “good” and knows she made the right decision.

“I’m very good and I know I made the right decision. It was a big decision, certainly; it was a difficult one but I’m very happy that I made the right decision. I’m also very happy that David Maxwell is going to be elected to Dáil Éireann to replace me. He will be a Monaghan based TD and I’m delighted,” she added.

With regard to the three-candidate strategy that was run by Fine Gael in the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency and following the elimination of both Cllr Carmel Brady and Cllr TP O’Reilly, the Minister was asked if in hindsight the right decision was taken.

“I just want to acknowledge the huge effort that Cllr Brady and Cllr O’Reilly put in,” she continued.

“They canvassed and worked extremely hard and today is not their day. But, you know, there is always another day. It was the decision of HQ to put a third candidate on; two had already come through convention and that decision was made.

“Let’s face it, we have one seat here now; Fine Gael had one seat going into this election and we still have one seat when the election is over.

“Meanwhile, Cllr O’Reilly told the Celt earlier today that he would have liked to have seen the popular retiring minister share her canvassing time more evenly between the three Fine Gael candidates.

“She canvassed for David, she canvassed for Carmel, that's fair enough. I would have hoped it was a more even spread maybe, but I'm not griping. We threw three candidates in there. The way I looked at it was, after the last local election, I said we get behind one candidate [in Cavan] whoever that may be. I was still the candidate and I said fair enough, plough on. That was the plan.

“Then after Heather made the announcement HQ came down and said they were going to add a third candidate. It threw everything into a wee bit of a disarray. It left us then asking what's our position here? Are they looking to get rid of me and put a female candidate in instead? I didn't honestly know.”

In response to that, Minister Humphreys added: A shur lookit, it’s like this you know there's always rough and tumble in an election campaign. I wish TP O’Reilly well; we have retained the Fine Gael seat in Cavan and Monaghan and that’s the most important thing.”