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Maria Baileys political future hangs in the balance after constituency vote

Fine Gael TD Maria Baileys political future hangs in the balance after party members in her own constituency voted for a review of the election ticket in Dun Laoghaire last night. Just over one hundred and fifty members attended the Fine Gael meeting last night at the Royal Marine Hotel. The meeting began with party representative, Joe Lawlor, who tabled the motion telling the crowd that Fine Gael opinion poll standings had taken a hit since the “Swing-gate” controversy. And there were calls for her to be taken off the Fine Gael ticket in the constituency. But there was also support for Maria Bailey, as a number of speakers took to the floor and defended her. One attendee said that “Deputy Bailey got 10,500 first preference votes in the last election and that she still had a lot of support in the constituency. While Maria Bailey herself pleaded with members not to dump her from the election ticket saying “I’m not a victim, but I’m not a villain either”. But the vote was eventually passed by 86 votes to 68. The 'Swing-gate' TD's political future now hangs in the balance. This effectively puts pressure on the Taoiseach and the Fine Gael Director of Elections, Pascal Donohue to remove Deputy Bailey. Yesterday, Leo Varadkar and a string of senior ministers said they would listen to what the members in Dún Laoghaire had to say. So if Fine Gael HQ are going to listen to what was said last night, then Maria Bailey will have to be removed from the ticket and will not run in the next General Election, whenever that may be. Our reporter Barry Whyte was at last nights meeting, and he spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning.... see more