Cllr John O’Donnell as he appeared join the RTE Investigates programme.
BREAKING NEWS: Cllr John O’Donnell has ruled out running in the general election just a week after hinting that he was considering the option.
O’Donnell said he wanted to end all speculation that he might run and that he would be one of the leading candidates in the race.
“That was never my position because in the light of the RTE Prime Time investigation, I ruled out any possibility of contesting the general election,” he tells today’s Tirconaill Tribune.
He tells the paper’s editor John McAteer: “I never intended to contest the forthcoming general election given the RTE Prime Time Report and it would have been very presumptuous for me to be considering such a move. I have given much consideration to my political future over the New Year and contesting the general election was not on the agenda at any time in the past six weeks.
“I have already responded to the Council’s queries under the Code of Ethics and my legal team has started processing my claim for libel against RTE.
“In the meantime it would be wrong for me to abandon the 1692 people who gave me their number one votes at the local elections, regardless of pending litigation against RTE.
“It is my plan to continue to represent the Letterkenny Electoral Area and to rebuild my good name that has been taken away over the past two months.”
Cllr. O’Donnell was at the Letterkenny Municipal District meeting in Letterkenny on Monday and plans to attend the meeting in Lifford on next Monday week amid much speculation that a number of councillors will not participate unless he’s absent from the Chamber.
There’s more on this story in today’s Tribune.
