FINE Gael councillor Olivia O’Sullivan is a name that has been bandied about in the national press columns as a likely candidate for the party locally in the next General Election.
However, when asked by the Limerick Post about the sense in political circles that she is being groomed by Fine Gael for the next Dáil, the City North representative said that the timing is wrong, and ruled herself out of the running in the next General Election.
“People will always talk about this but I have young children and, you know, it’s not family friendly,” Cllr O’Sullivan explained.
“There’s a big difference between being in the commuter belt in Dublin and being down the country. Look at Brendan Griffin, he’s got a young family, can you blame him for leaving? He’s down in Dingle, so he’s looking at the next however many years of his children’s lives.
“I was talking to Minister Neale Richmond last week. We were in Leinster House and I bumped into him. He gets to have breakfast every day with his family. He might get home for bedtime, maybe not. But if you are down the country, you are gone on a Tuesday morning, how do you equate that if you have family values when your kids are young like mine? I don’t feel it’s the time for me.”
Cllr O’Sullivan believes there’s a reason politics is not attractive to parents of young children.
“It’s not just about women, it’s about mothers. Is asking a parent to leave their children right? I mean obviously many people make that decision, but I would struggle with that around my own values in raising children,” she confessed.
