Coveney due in Cavan this evening in Fine Gael leadership race

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney is due in Cavan in the next few hours as part of his nationwide tour canvassing for the votes at grassroots level in the Fine Gael leadership contest.

According to the latest reports, Mr Coveney is trailing his opponent - Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar - in the race but he's hoping to turn the tide in Cavan, at least, when he addresses Fine Gael members in the Hotel Kilmore this evening at around 7pm.

Already, two of County Cavan's Oireachtas members - Minister for Rural Affairs Heather Humphreys and Senator Joe O'Reilly - have publicly backed Minister Varadkar as their new leader.

 

One of the first to declare for Mr Varadkar as future leader of the country was Minister Humphreys, who herself is being tipped in some circles as the new deputy leader to replace Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald.
Nailing her colours to the mast, the Cavan Monaghan represenative, Minister Humphreys, said: 'Over the last three years, I have observed Leo at Cabinet and I have been consistently impressed by his approach. He thinks outside the box and has the capacity to both read a situation and come up with alternative solutions.'
Having received a pledge from Mr Varadkar to 'double the funding' for the arts in the years ahead, she added: 'Leo has shown himself to be a courageous and committed public servant. Like myself, he did not come from a political background but he got into politics because he wanted to contribute, he wanted to positively change people's lives.'

 

Voting

More than 20,000 grassroot party members will vote at 26 party polling stations between Monday, May 29 and Thursday, June 1, with 73 TDs, senators and MEPs voting in Dublin on Friday, June 2.
The parliamentary party’s votes are worth 65% of the total poll. Rank-and-file members account for 25% and 235 local representatives make up the remaining 10%.

* For more on who's supporting who, see tomorrow's Celt.