Murphy set to resign?

Local TD Dara Murphy looks set to leave his seat in the Cork North-Central electoral area, more than six months out from the likely date for a general election.

It’s understood that the Fine Gael TD is likely to resign his seat to take a full time job in Europe and comes after he announced in May 2018 that he wouldn’t be contesting the next general election.

As well as his TD duties, Deputy Murphy has been working with the European People’s Party (EPP) in Brussels since 2017.

Deputy Murphy, who will be 50 on Monday, was the Lord Mayor of Cork in 2009/2010 and has been a TD since being elected to the Dáil in 2011. He previously served as the Minister of State for European Affairs and Data Protection from 2014-2016 but An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar removed him from the post when he took over as leader of Fine Gael from former taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Deputy Murphy had the lowest attendance in the Dáil last year and his new role is said to be with the European Commission. However as of going to print on Wednesday, his resignation had still to be officially confirmed by the Fine Gael party.