Stalemate between Deane and O'Leary over IFA presidential appeal

The news that Deane was appealing his failed presidential bid broke on Thursday night. Deane told RTÉ, the state broadcaster, that a technological failure meant he could not submit the necessary sixth nomination before Wednesday’s 5.30pm deadline.

From speaking to the main parties involved in this latest development in the IFA story, the Irish Farmers Journal has the following understanding of Deane's reason for his appeal.

At around 5.10pm on Wednesday, Deane contacted Monaghan chair Brian Treanor, who was publicly backing the other candidate left looking for a sixth nomination on the day, outgoing IFA deputy president Tim O’Leary.

Initially Deane left a message with Treanor as he could not get through to him. Treanor then phoned Deane back and since Deane could not answer the phone at the time, Treanor told Deane in a voicemail that he “was happy to support” him, but “only on the condition that O’Leary had pulled out of the race”. Deane says he has this message saved as a voicemail on his phone.

After finally getting through to Deane, Treanor says he was under the impression that O’Leary had pulled out of the race and, based on this, he downloaded a nomination form and signed his support for Deane. With the assistance of his daughter, Treanor scanned it and tried to send it as an email attachment to the IFA’s acting general secretary Bryan Barry in the Farm Centre.

However, Treanor was up against the clock and the email did not send before the deadline of 5.30pm.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal on Friday, Treanor said that he sent the nomination form only on the understanding that O’Leary had pulled out of the race. He added that even if the nomination for Deane had been sent in time, his nomination for O’Leary would still have been in writing, rendering both nominations null and void.

”Busy making phone calls”

Deane told the Irish Farmers Journal on Friday that his reason for assuming O’Leary was out of the race was that O'Leary "was not as active" as him in the run-up to the deadline. Deane said he remained busy phoning O’Leary’s nominators, including Westmeath and Dublin, to see if they would switch their support in the hours leading up to the deadline.

Deane alleges that because O'Leary had not been "as active" as him on the Wednesday afternoon, he had, therefore, “dropped out of the race”.

“I made 10 or 15 phone calls in the couple of hours before the deadline,” Deane said. “I can prove that with my phone records. Can Tim O’Leary prove he was as active as I was in the run-up to the deadline?”

However, O’Leary confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal on Friday that he never pulled out of the race and that, through an intermediary, he had contacted at least one of the county chairs on deadline day who had nominated Deane. He also, through an intermediary, contacted Deane himself to ask if he, as Carlow county chair, would drop out of the race and nominate O’Leary so that O’Leary could secure a sixth and final nomination.

O’Leary said there was also a last-minute appeal to Longford chair Sean Conefrey who was the only county chair not to have nominated anyone for the presidential bid by the day of the deadline.

The outgoing deputy president added that Deane is “well aware that I was still trying to secure nominations on the day” and it was "incorrect for him to tell Treanor that I was out of the race".

Emergency council

Deane has said he “will be asking for an emergency council to look at this”, adding he was sure “no council member will want to have me out of this race based on a technology problem”.

He added that he has made several attempts to contact the IFA in relation to the matter but has not yet received a response.

According to the IFA Constitution and Rules, "all questions as to the eligibility of any candidate nominated or as to the validity or regularity of any nomination paper or voting paper or as to spoiled votes, or the validity of any vote shall be determined by the National Treasurer/Returning Officer", who is in this case Jer Bergin.

The Irish Farmers Journal has not yet been able to reach Bergin for comment. The IFA has declined to comment on the story.

Nomination process

Those who wish to be nominated as candidates in the IFA presidential election must have the signed support of six county executives, including their own. Up until the deadline on Wednesday, both Deane and O'Leary had the backing of five county executives, including their own, Carlow and Cork central respectively. Therefore, both were awaiting that all-important sixth and final nomination, either from the Longford chair, Sean Conefrey, who was the only chair not to have nominated a candidate by the day of the deadline, or from a county chair who switched their nomination at the last minute.

Below are the nominations by county as they stood at the close of the deadline on Wednesday:

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