FG has ‘party management issue’ following McNulty, says Simon Harris

Fine Gael has a "party management issue" following the withdrawal of its candidate John McNulty from the Seanad byelection campaign, according Minister of State at the Department of Finance Simon Harris.

Mr Harris said Taoiseach Enda Kenny had “put his hands up” and Mr McNulty “now won’t be a Senator” after asking Oireachtas members not to vote for him.

“We never should have had a situation where the CV of an individual being considered for a Seanad nomination was presented by party officials to a Minister,” Mr Harris said.

He insisted the appointment of Mr McNulty to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) board and his selection as the Fine Gael candidate in the Seanad by-election were “distinct processes”.

“What’s wrong is the perception. What’s wrong is the way we go about allowing State board appointments to be made,” he said.

Reform of the process of appointing people to State boards should have been initiated earlier, Mr Harris said in an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

That process had now been “sped up”.

He said there had been 29 individuals vying for the “Fine Gael” vacancy in the Seanad.

Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys did not know Mr Humphreys was going to be the candidate, he added.

“We obviously have a party management issue here. The Taoiseach put his hands up...in terms of admitting that he and we took our eye off the ball.”

Earlier, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said people wanted to hear “the truth” about what had happened, and the entire sequence of events should be laid out.

“You get the sense now that a story has been concocted basically that puts the blame on Fine Gael officials.”

He said both the Seanad and Imma had been undermined by the controversy.

Mr Martin said Mr Kenny “seems oblivious” to the damage that had been done.

Asked what he wanted to hear from Mr Kenny, Mr Martin said: “Just the truth, I think most people out there would prefer a very simple and straightforward explanation”.