A November election is a no-brainer, Simon
EDITORIAL COMMENT
Six by-elections or a general election? That's the question currently occupying Taoiseach Simon Harris' thoughts.
And despite the fact it does not make any sense whatsoever to call the former ahead of the latter, the Fine Gael leader keeps insisting his government will run its full course until March 2025.
So what's the ploy in not coming out and declaring a November 15 or November 22 election? Nobody can quite figure it out.
Is Fine Gael in greater turmoil than is obvious after losing 14 of its outgoing TDs due to retirement?
Certainly the loss of Michael Ring in Mayo has left the party in a real battle to retain its two seats.
Castlebar-based Minister of State Alan Dillon looks safe and sound but, after that, nothing can be taken for granted, thus speculation growing by the day of a candidate being parachuted into south Mayo to save the day.
In fairness, Hollymount-based Martina Jennings, the chief executive officer of Mayo Roscommon Hospice and a former Mayo Person of the Year, would by a formidable candidate, given her profile as a household name because the work of the Hospice has touched the lives of many families in every corner of the constituency.
It would be a coup for Fine Gael to clinch her candidacy and, yes, it would put the party back in the equation of winning two seats despite the fact Independent Councillor Patsy O'Brien, a former member of Fine Gael, is running in the same parish.
Returning to Castlebar, politics has changed so much that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can jointly sell the prospect to the electorate of the county town having two seats at the cabinet table if they elect both Alan Dillon and Lisa Chambers to office by voting local and not allowing 3,000 votes to leave Castlebar in favour of Erris-based Sinn Féin representative Rose Conway-Walsh, TD, as occurred in the 2020 general election.
It's remarkable how two traditionally opposing forces are now using their relatively new national partnership to parochial advantage, even to the extent of having constituency offices within a door or two of one another!
Will this so-called Civil War alliance ensure Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil of taking four seats between them with Sinn Féin left scrapping with the Independent pact for the final seat?
How Sinn Féin have fallen in the space of a few short months, but could its star be on the rise again if Harris keeps kicking the election down the road to March?
A November election is a no-brainer, Simon. Just go for it.