John Bailey (Irish politician)

John Bailey is an Irish Fine Gael politician who is an elected member of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. He spent 10 years as chairman of the Dublin County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

On 23 May 2007, the eve of the general election in Ireland, Bailey circulated a letter purporting to be an official missive from the Fine Gael party, advising party supporters to vote No 1 for Bailey for vote management reasons. The letter was headed with a photo of the party leader, Enda Kenny. This action was subsequently criticised by his running mate, Eugene Regan who called the letter 'entirely dishonest'. Fine Gael's local director of elections, Paddy Hayes, described the letter as a 'serious breach of party discipline and unity'.

In 2009, Bailey wrote to constituents in the vicinity of Dun Laoghaire Golf Club to inform them that he had submitted an objection to An Bord Pleanála concerning building development proposed for the Golf club grounds. The appeals body denied receiving an objection from Bailey. Bailey stated it must have gone missing in the post and that his bank was trying to trace the cheque for his submission fee. The Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune both reported that Bailey and his daughter had received financial donations towards their election campaigns from the builders and the estate agents of the Golf Club development. Bailey assured the public that the donations had no bearing on his failure to object to the development.[1][2][3]

Less than two years after the criticism by Eugene Regan of John Bailey, Regan's 25-year-old daughter, Naja, sought to be selected to run as a Fine Gael candidate in the 2009 local elections. The initial selection convention in November 2008 was cancelled at short notice following a letter written by the Fine Gael's three sitting councillors (including John Bailey) to the FG executive council declaring their "unanimous view" that they should be the only candidates selected to run in the ward.

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