Jackie Healy Rae may take son's seat on council

If a vacancy occurs on County Council/ City Council does there not have to be an election? Can any party or independent just hand it over to anyone they choose?

Can this be true?

Sure if you do it with an MEP why not at council level

Yes. He can chose whoever he likes to take his place on the council.

FF et al have been doing this for years.

Most parties have rules about how the co-opted person is selected. In Labour, the relevant local branches get to vote to choose the replacement.

I've been listening to Michael Healy Rae over the last few weeks and I hate to admit it but he's a very smart guy and what he's saying is very reasonable. Now I don't know what he says at home but what he says when he's on a national stage is measured and non-parochial.

In addition to JHR taking his son's seat on the council, the other son, Danny, I think is his name, will be Michael's representative in the constituency when Michael is in Dublin. So, all three will be paid by the state. JHR and his sons are good public representatives in that they get things done for their constituents, but it's really all about the money for them. Between their earnings as public reps and their plant hire business, which gets a lot of business from Kerry County Council, they're absolutely loaded.