Mairead McGuinness has declared for Minister for Housing Simon Coveney tonight.
The MEP confirmed she will be backing Mr Coveney in the Fine Gael leadership race.
The third leadership hustings is taking place in Galway tonight.
#Coveneyforleader #FGLE17 @MaireadMcGMEP pic.twitter.com/EVUdbVlbhV
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) May 27, 2017
Ms McGuinness declaration is a significant boost for Mr Coveney.
FG leadership tracker: track the contest and check who your local TD, Senator, MEP and councillor is supporting.
The Minister for Housing now has the support of 21 members of the parliamentary party compared to Leo Varadkar’s 46.
Mr Varadkar said he wanted a mandate to transform Ireland and the Fine Gael party. He would widen the party’s appeal to a new base of voters.
In his opening speech Mr Varadkar claimed his party would do what is right, even when it is not popular.
Up to 800 members gathered in the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe to hear from the two candidates.
Heavyweight contest
Mr Coveney said this is the start of a discussion on what Fine Gael stands for.
The Minister said he wanted to be a taoiseach who reached out to the regions and take the talk out of Dublin.
Mr Coveney said he wanted to be a taoiseach who would reawake the regions.
When Mr Varadkar talks about being a taoiseach for all of Ireland, Mr Coveney said that is already him.
Mr Coveney said Fine Gael needed battle plans for every constituency in the country.
The Minister insisted each constituency needs a strategy that is well-resourced and run by headquarters.
Mr Varadkar said Fine Gael did not run a good general election campaign in February 2016.
It needed to be a media savvy, well-resourced campaign, said the Minister.
Ministers need to spend time in constituencies, said Mr Varadkar.
Fine Gael representatives need to be made aware of good news announcements in constituencies, he added. Often Fianna Fail and Independent TDs are made aware of events before party TDs, noted the Dublin frontrunner.
However, Mr Coveney said Mr Varadkar has complained about the poor general election result in 2016.
To a significant round of applause from the audience, Mr Coveney said Mr Varadkar was in charge of communications and had a significant role in the election campaign.
Mr Varadkar said he acknowledged his role in the general election campaign.
The two began traded jibes over their successes in elections including the failure to elect two TDs in Cork South Central.
