His party, Fine Gael, has six months to name the date. With most candidates already declared, the prospect of having to listen to people banging about Dublin Bay South until October is frightening. Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar will move the writ to trigger the byelection and Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien will then formally sign the order setting the date for polling day. Also bowing out is special adviser Deborah Sweeney, a former press officer with Fine Gael who has been a member of Paschal’s inner circle since his early days in the Department of Transport. “One might schedule a Zoom meeting on hospitality and next minute you’d get a message in at short notice from the other fella that he has a Zoom meeting set up with the pilots right after it.

Source: The Irish Times June 05, 2021 00:33 UTC