The Fine Gael councillor who played a key role in getting parts of the former Quinn Group back under local control has been asked by his party if he would go forward in the general election.

Councillor John McCartin said he has not made up his mind and that “just because you have been asked to make yourself available doesn’t mean you will be chosen”.

Mr McCartin is chairman of QBRC, formerly the Quinn Business Retention Company. It recently bought the building products and packaging elements of the former Quinn Group businesses on the Cavan/Monaghan border and was the entity that took over the businesses in the wake of their being seized in 2011 by Anglo Irish Bank.

He is a non-executive director of Quinn Industrial Holdings, the operator of the businesses. Fine Gael has two sitting TDs in the constituency, John Perry and Tony McLoughlin.

Formerly bankrupt Séan Quinn is back using his old office in the former Quinn Group headquarters, where his former long time manager, Liam McCaffrey, is chief executive. Meanwhile discussions are under way exploring the possibility that the IBRC might do a deal with the Quinn family about the mammoth legal battles they are engaged in.