Kehoe is the 14th member of the 52-member city council to resign since the local elections in 2004. He is also the fourth Sinn Fein councillor to resign for personal reasons over the last three years. Sinn Fein won 10 seats in 2004.

"I've done my stint in politics and have moved on to another phase of my life, " Kehoe told the Sunday Tribune. He said his departure would not have a negative impact on Sinn Fein.

"I'm not a career politician although I have been active since I was 15 years old and I'm 51 now. Sinn Fein is a young person's party so it's time to let them go at it."

Kehoe narrowly missed out on a Dail seat in the 2002 general election but he was controversially replaced by Mary Lou McDonald as candidate in Dublin Central in this year's contest. Sinn Fein sources are downplaying internal party speculation that McDonald would step down from the European Parliament to fill the vacancy created by Kehoe's exit to shore up her political future in Dublin Central.

Kehoe's resignation highlights a growing trend across local government for candidates successfully elected in 2004 to resign their seats. All but one of the resignations from Dublin City Council have come from councillors elected in 2004. The sole exception was Chris Andrews of Fianna Fail who was co-opted in September 2006 to fill the vacancy created by Gary Keegan's resignation. Andrews, however, resigned eight months later after his election to the Dail.

Five of the 14 resignations from Dublin City Council followed the election of councillors to the Dail, as legislation prohibits a person from holding a council seat and simultaneously serving as a TD. But another nine resignations were due to personal reasons, including career pressures and family commitments. These include the four Sinn Fein councillors as well as Keegan, Wendy Hederman (PD) and Brian Gillen (Fine Gael).

"I found it was getting in the way of business. I lost business because of being in politics, " Keegan said, although he admitted his resignation was also motivated by a failure to secure a general election nomination. "It can be financially draining. A councillor in Dublin gets about 25,000 in salary and expenses but the 14,000 salary is taxed so I would have been subsidising being a councillor from my own money."

Kehoe said the time demands and constituency pressures on local councillors had increased since the ending of the dual mandate. "If you want full-time councillors then you are going to have to pay them, " he said.

The exodus is not confined to Dublin City Council. Kealin Ireland of the Green Party last week confirmed her resignation from Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

All vacancies at local government level are filled on a cooption basis, with the party that holds the seat of the resigning councillor generally nominating a replacement.

Meanwhile, plans to boost the role of Fianna Fail headquarters in candidate selection for the 2009 local elections were unveiled at yesterday's meeting of the party's national executive. Fianna Fail will hold fewer delegate conventions, with interested candidates being invited to contact the party before being selected after an interview process.

The strategy was employed in several constituencies in the recent general election.