Louth Independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick will not contest next general election

Independent Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick has said he will not stand for re-election to the next Dáil.
He becomes the third of the five TDs in the constituency, after former Fine Gael colleague Fergus O’Dowd and Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster, to declare they will not be standing in the forthcoming general election.
In a statement issued on Friday, Mr Fitzpatrick said it has been an “honour and privilege to represent the people of my hometown of Dundalk, County Louth and East-Meath in the Dáil since 2011 … but now is the right time to explore new options and opportunities”.
He said he was “very proud of my efforts in helping to create a more caring and compassionate Ireland. Among my most important campaigns was the opposition of the legalisation of abortion in Ireland of which I felt very strongly about”.
The 62-year-old, who had previously been the manager of the Louth football team, was initially elected as a Fine Gael TD in 2011 but subsequently left the party in 2018 over the issue of repealing the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.
He said he was proud to have been elected to the Dáil on three occasions and regarded it as a particular achievement to have retained his seat in 2020 as an independent. In his statement, he thanked the members of the Regional Group of TDs for their support.
Mr Fitzpatrick’s announcement leaves Ruairí Ó Murchú of Sinn Féin and Ged Nash of Labour as the only two sitting TDs in the five seat constituency on course to stand again.