Will the Monk be first past the post?

Reactivated social media pages help fan by-election bid rumours

- BY PAUL HEALY Crime Correspondent

SOCIAL media pages controlled by Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch have been reactivated and are promoting a possible by-election bid.

Speculation has been rife that the career criminal, who was recently hit with an €800,000 Criminal Assets Bureau tax bill, could contest the Dublin Central by-election after Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe resigned this week.

While Hutch, 62, has not responded to the claims and is believed to be abroad, social media pages which ran his general election campaign posted new content.

One image, of Dublin’s famous Five Lamps, is captioned with “The People’s Choice’ and was posted on the official-gerardhutch’ Instagram and TikTok pages yesterday.

The CAB case has yet to be opened before the High Court, but sources close to Hutch insist he has no intention of paying the bill.

That could spell trouble for Hutch, as any person elected to Dail Eireann would have to be found to be tax-compliant.