SHAY BRENNAN, son of the late Séamus, has made an eleventh-hour decision to seek the Fianna Fáil nomination to contest the 5 June Dublin South by-election for his father's vacant Dáil seat.

Although Brennan had ruled himself out weeks ago, citing his employment with Anglo Irish Bank as the reason, he told the Sunday Tribune yesterday: "I want to run and I am going to look for the nomination at the convention on Wednesday night.

"Dad won nine elections and never lost a campaign and my hesitancy to date was because Anglo was getting bad publicity. In the last few weeks people are starting to appreciate that there are ordinary staff members in banks who are removed from high-level decision making. People are more receptive now to the fact that I am a rank and file Anglo employee and not senior management.

"My sister Aoife is running in the local elections and we have been encouraged by all the emails and calls she has got from constituents.

"Fianna Fáil has a very outside chance but we will put everything into the campaign and I look forward to the challenge if I am nominated. You can never say never in politics. Dad always encouraged us to be anything we wanted to be and once it was my decision he would be proud that I am following the family tradition."

Yesterday former PD TD Liz O'Donnell dismissed speculation that she has been approached by Fine Gael and sitting Fine Gael councillor Jim O'Leary also ruled himself out.

The party will unveil a high-profile candidate on Wednesday night and RTÉ's George Lee, Friend's First economist Jim Power and Jim Miley, formerly of myhome.ie, were among the names being mooted by Fine Gael sources.

Lee was unavailable for comment but an RTÉ spokeswoman quelled rumours – which were rife in political circles yesterday – and said, "He is not in any shape or form considering standing for Fine Gael."