Swing-gate TD Maria Bailey is facing a Halloween nightmare after her party’s local branch said it will meet tomorrow to decide whether to potentially call for her removal as a general election candidate. After a voter backlash, Ms Bailey dropped her legal case. However, the controversy continued to rumble on, resulting in Taoiseach Leo Varadkar demoting her and Ms Bailey losing her place on three Oireachtas committees. Last night, Fine Gael sources confirmed a motion will now be heard on October 31 about whether the party’s Dun Laoghaire general election ticket should be altered. However, any local pushback against Ms Bailey or another candidate will put senior officials under extreme pressure to definitively address the issue.

Source: Irish Examiner October 30, 2019 08:15 UTC