THE GREEN Party is to run Wicklow-based Senator Deirdre de Burca in the Dublin constituency in next year’s European elections. Ms de Burca was the sole nominee when nominations closed at noon yesterday. She will be formally ratified as a candidate at a convention next month.
Patricia McKenna, who held a seat in the constituency for the party from 1994 to 2004, announced recently that she would not seek a party nomination this time.
Ms de Burca said she believed she was the candidate best positioned to win back the seat. “I believe that I can do this because I am originally from Dublin and, while my political base is in Bray and Co Wicklow, I am very familiar with the issues that affect the greater Dublin area,” she said.
“These include planning, transport, waste, infrastructure, education and health, amongst others,” she added.
Dublin will be a highly competitive constituency, given that it has been reduced from a four-seater to a three-seater.
The outgoing MEPs are Eoin Ryan, Fianna Fáil; Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael; Proinsias de Rossa, Labour, and Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin.
Given her Wicklow base, Ms de Burca would appear to have been an obvious candidate for the East constituency where Nuala Ahern once held a seat for the party. However, the Green Party has a strong electoral base in Dublin, and Ms de Burca will launch a formidable challenge for a seat.
Formerly a psychologist and primary schoolteacher, Ms de Burca served on Wicklow County Council and Bray Town Council.
Ms de Burca contested last year’s general election in the Wicklow constituency.
She was later nominated to the Seanad by the then taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
