Fine Gael announced a new director of elections this week, but it's not somebody very new - it's Finbar Fitzpatrick, general secretary from 1982-87. He replaces Frank Flannery who has been in the job on a voluntary basis for three years. Michael Noonan obviously wants his own man in the post and Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, backed him in the leadership campaign and will now lead the FG team into the next election. But will he give up his high-powered job, (Flannery was chief executive of the Rehab Group)? The answer is almost definitely no.
Fitzpatrick is often regarded as a divisive rather than uniting figure but a director of elections has to put the booth in and this, say FG insiders, Fitzpatrick will do. Noonan will stand or fall by the next election, so it is right that he has his own people in place. Further officer changes are predicted.