To ensure that we have as many candidates selected as possible in advance of that, the Organisation Committee and the Executive Board have passed a motion to amend our selection process for the General Election. Our General Election standing orders which you can find here will remain in place, but candidates who are sitting Oireachtas members or sitting councillors, will not be required to go before a Candidate Selection Board. We have also shortened the time period for expressions of interest, and nominations, reducing them from two separate periods of 14 days, to one single period of 14 days.

The full text of the motion is below:

That, for the purposes of the general election to take place on the dissolution of the 33rd Dáil, the standing orders for the selection of candidates for that election shall apply with the modifications that, in a constituency where there is a sitting TD, Senator or councillor –

• it shall not be necessary for the General Secretary to write to all members under S.O. 9 (f), in advance of her giving give notice in writing of the opening of nominations under S.O. 7, and

• every TD, Senator and councillor belonging to the constituency concerned shall have a right to go before the selection convention, without reference to the views or recommendations of a Candidate Selection Board.

I will be in touch with constituencies directly regarding plans to hold individual conventions, but if you have anything you would like to raise with me on this, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

We will be holding our first convention for the General Election tonight (Friday 28th June) in Dublin Bay South.

– Aideen Blackwood, National Organiser