Tom Fleming

Who is Tom Fleming?

Tom Fleming is an Irish independent politician. He was elected at the 2011 general election to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála for Kerry South.

Fleming is a former Fianna Fáil member of Kerry County Council, and was first elected to the Council at the 1985 local elections, as a Fianna Fáil councillor for the Killarney electoral area. He retained his seat at the 1999, 2004 and 2009 local elections. He was an unsuccessful Fianna Fáil candidate for Kerry South at the 2002 and 2007 general elections.

He and fellow Councillor Michael Cahill left Fianna Fáil on 12 January 2011. He contested the Kerry South constituency at the 2011 general election as an independent candidate, winning a seat. He is part of the Dáil Technical group which gives independents and minor parties more speaking time in Dáil debates.

Following the publication of the 2012 Constituency Commission report, he was listed by the Irish Times as one of 13 TDs most likely to lose their seats in the next election. The report proposed the merger of the Kerry South and Kerry North-West Limerick constituencies into a new 5 seat Kerry constituency.