Councillor's bid for Dáil seat
Fine Gael representative to seek party nomination
As speculation continues on the timing of the forthcoming General Election - to be held within the next six months - party conventions for candidate selection is already moving up a gear in preparation.
Local councillor for the Newport Local Election Area, Dr Phyll Bugler (FG), who was successfully re-elected to Tipperary County Council at the Local Elections last June, will confirm within the next 48 hours that she is to seek the party nomination to contest the next General Election. The announcement will be made, when she attends at a pre-convention meeting of the Newport Branch of Fine Gael, at the Freigh Inn, Newport, on this Thursday night, at 8.30pm.
A spokesperson for the branch said: “Local councillor, Dr Phyll Bugler is seeking the nomination (to contest the next General Election) and she will attend. This meeting is open to the public and local people who are interested in being involved in the democratic process are welcome to attend.
“We are in the final year of the cycle of the present government and the convention to select a Fine Gael candidate in the reestablished North Tipperary Constituency for the forthcoming General Election will be held in the Templemore Arms on Friday, September 13.”
Cllr Bugler was first elected to North Tipperary County Council in the 2004 Local Election and retained her seat in consecutive elections since, with her best results to date at the recent Local Election when she was elected on the first count.
In the June election, her first preference vote of 1,636 was up 21% on the previous election. In 2019 she polled 1,352 first preference votes, an increase of 14.7% on her first preference vote of 1,178 in 2014.
She held the chairperson role of Tipperary County Council in 2017-’18 and has served as chairperson of the Nenagh Municipal District and on several committees over the past two decades.
The last holder of a Dáil seat for the FG party in North Tipperary was Noel Coonan, Templemore, an area in which Cllr Bugler has strong family connections. Tipperary reverts from a five-seater for the whole county to two separate constituencies of North Tipperary and South Tipperary at the next General Election, with three seats to be filled in each constituency.
There are three outgoing deputies in North Tipperary - Deputy Michael Lowry (Ind), Deputy Jackie Cahill (FF) and Deputy Alan Kelly (Lab), former leader of the Labour Party.
The last holder of a FG seat in the area was Noel Coonan, Templemore, who was unsuccessful in the 2016 General Election having served as a TD for North Tipperary from 2007, prior to which he was a member of the Senate from 2002.
In the last General Election in 2020, the FG party candidates in the Tipperary constituency were Garret Ahearn and Mary Newman Julian, who were both based in South Tipperary. Both failed to get elected, but Mr Ahern, who is based in Clonmel, was subsequently elected to the Senate, of which he is still a member.