We still have just two candidates in the race to be the next IFA pesident – Tim O’Leary and Michael Silke. It’s expected that Henry Burns will join them this (Thursday) evening at the Laois executive.

Derek Deane is maintaining his stance that he won’t make a decision on his candidacy until the election date is known. That won’t be established until the next executive council meeting in January, but nominations close the next day, and each candidate will need six – their own county executive and five other chairmen.

That means a maximum of four candidates. Kerryman Flor McCarthy is seeking nominations. Tom Turley doesn’t seem to be figuring at this time, but Tim Cullinan is still in the hunt. The position will clarify itself within days.

Typical Corkman – the minute Tim O’Leary didn’t have to resign, he went and resigned. Having survived 11 motions of no confidence of one form or another, on Tuesday evening, Tim vacated the position of acting president. In fairness to him, he stepped down from that role to contest the presidential election, and is staying on as deputy president. Two candidates were nominated to take on the leadership role – Teddy Cashman and Jer Bergin. Teddy said that if Jer was prepared to stand, he would support him, and so did everyone else.

Pigs

Meanwhile, there is clear anger within the IFA pig committee. A number of people, perhaps as many as 10, from the pig committee have contacted IFA HQ looking for an emergency meeting or calling for committee chairman Pat O’Flaherty to resign.

When contacted by The Dealer, O’Flaherty said he was looking to hold a meeting on Friday (18 December). He added that he is midway through his tenure and that he would make “his own decision”. There are a number of issues with the committee. Some relate to O’Flaherty’s leadership as well as his role in a pigmeat company. Accusations had been made that this was a conflict of interest.

A report into the workings of the committee carried out by UCD’s Paddy Wall and former pig committee chairman Tim Cullinan found that changes are required to protect the integrity of the IFA DNA system. This helps ensure pigmeat product labelled as Irish, is Irish. Expect Friday’s meeting to be hot.

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Full coverage: Con Lucey report