General election likely to be held on Saturday February 8th

THE General Election looks set to be held on a Saturday this time around.

Sources say that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told his cabinet today that the date of the election will be Saturday, February 8^th.

And it appears to be accurate, given a statement just issued by Aras an Uachtarain saying the Taoiseach will call to the Phoenix Park this afternoon to seek the dissolution of 32nd Dáil.

He will ask President Michael D Higgins to dissolve the 32nd Dáil and ‘to summon the new Dáil on 20th February 2020’.

Already TDs and candidates are tweeting that their campaigns are underway and a number of them are erecting their posters around West Cork this afternoon.

Cork South West is a three-seater constituency with currently one FG TD (Jim Daly), one Fianna Fail TD (Margaret Murphy O’Mahony) and one independent (Michael Collins).

However, Deputy Daly has indicated he will not be seeking re-election.

Fine Gael has chosen Cllr Karen Coakley and Sen Tim Lombard to run this time around, while Fianna Fail confirmed last week that county mayor Christopher O’Sullivan had been added to their ticket, alongside Deputy Murphy O’Mahony.

Other contenders include Deputy Collins, Cllr Holly Cairns (Social Democrats) and Paul Hayes (Sinn Fein).

And, just this afternoon, former Fianna Fail member, current Cork County Cllr Alan Coleman, has said he is adding his name to the ticket as an Independent.

There are likely to be a few more names added to the list in the coming days.