Two senior SIPTU officials have announced that they intend running for general secretary of the union when Mr Billy Attley retires next April. The general secretary is one of the ruling triumvirate in the State's largest union and is primarily responsible for administration, personnel and finance.
The union's south-west regional secretary, Mr John McDonnell, announced yesterday morning that he would be a candidate, while a few hours later the regional secretary for the Dublin public sector branch, Mr Brendan Hayes, entered the field.
Mr McDonnell is secretary of SIPTU's largest region, the south-west, which has 42,000 members. If he wins, he will be the first non-Dubliner to hold the position.
A former branch secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union in Mallow, Mr McDonnell became a SIPTU regional secretary when the ITGWU amalgamated with the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland in 1990 to form the new union. He has represented members in the food, health and local authority sectors.
Mr Hayes is a former FWUI official and is responsible for the development of information technology in SIPTU, as well as representing 30,000 members working in the public sector. He has represented the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on the Public Service Pensions Commission and on the Government Task Force on Long Term Unemployment. Mr McDonnell, who is 55, would bring wide experience and a formidable track record to the job if elected. Mr Hayes, who is 44, is seen as one of the ablest of a younger generation of technocrats.