Madigan confirms Europe bid

Mike Finnerty 05 Dec 2023

Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan has announced her candidacy to be on the ballot for Fine Gael in next June’s European elections.

Ever since Frances Fitzgerald announced she would not run for Fine Gael next June a variety of names have been linked with the seat such as Noel Rock and Kate O’Connell, but Madigan has become the first to officially state her interest in the seat.

Speaking on RTE last night, Madigan threw her hat into the ring, saying that she is looking to secure the nomination at the upcoming party convention.

Madigan confirmed that she has spoken to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about the bid for Europe, as well as party members.

“We need strong voices in the European Parliament, with executive experience & a proven track record of advancing change,” she tweeted.

The prospect of a sitting TD running for Europe and subsequently winning may cause some headaches in Fine Gael as the party lost the Dublin Mid-West by-election in November 2019 following Fitzgerald’s election to Europe, but Vardkar told the Irish Times in November “that’s just that’s just the reality of it; the most important thing is that we have the best people representing us in the European Parliament.”

“We only have 15 seats in the European Parliament, we’re a small country, it has to be the best people.”

Madigan has served as the Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown since 2016, with fellow Fine Gael Minister of State Neale Richmond also representing the same constituency.

Green Party Minister Catherine Martin topped the poll in the constituency last time out, marking one of the only constituencies in the nation where all of the TDs are members of Government parties.

Fine Gael ran two candidates for Europe in the Dublin constituency in 2019, so in the event Madigan makes the ticket, she will in all likelihood not be going it alone.

Fitzgerald secured a hefty 16.2% of first preferences in 2019, while her running mate Mark Durkan secured 4.5%.

Durkan’s votes were nowhere near enough to secure a seat on the day, but with 20% of Dublin voters plumping for Fine Gael in 2019, there is a sizeable cohort of voters at the party’s disposal.

Sinn Féin have decided to run two candidates for the first time, while poll-topper Ciáran Cuffe announced in September he was seeking re-election.