Westmeath County Council votes against nominating presidential candidate

A bid to nominate former solicitor and owner of a doggy day care business Nick Delehanty, as Westmeath County Council's candidate to contest the presidential election was defeated by 12 votes to five at the September monthly meeting of the local authority this afternoon.

Having heard presentations from over a dozen prospective candidates at a special council meeting on Monday of last week, elected members were required to decide at today's meeting if they wished to nominate a candidate and to identify the name of that candidate.

Members had no objection to a proposal from Independent Ireland Cllr, Paul Hogan, that the council should nominate a candidate, but when he put forward the name of Nick Delehanty, Fianna Fail's Cllr Vinny McCormack objected to it, declaring that he was “not in favour” of Mr. Delehanty whom he said “did not align” with his own views or those of the people he represented. Cllr McCormack was seconded by his party colleague for the Mullingar-Kinnegad district, Cllr Niall Gaffney.

In putting Nick Delehanty's name forward, Cllr Paul Hogan said he was “by far the best candidate” to have made a pitch for the presidential nomination at last week's special council meeting, while Cllr Mick Dollard added that he was the one candidate who had “impressed the most.”

The Cathaoirleach, Cllr Aoife Davitt, asked if there were any other nominations before putting the issue to a vote, and no other names were put forward. 12 Cllrs voted against the nomination of Nick Delehanty, with five voting in favour. Three members were absent.

Cllr Denis Leonard proposed that the Standing Orders of the council be amended in advance of the next presidential election to ensure that only candidates who have secured a proposed and seconder be allowed to make a presentation to elected members of local authorities.

“We had 13 or 14 candidates in here last week and its not that I object to the four or five hours we spent in here listening to them” he said “but I think we could look at Standing Orders and amend them sometime over the next seven years.”

Chief Executive, Barry Kehoe, assured members that the Standing Orders would be examined with a view to amending them before the next presidential election.