Sinn Fein is insisting its decision to expell one councillor, and suspend another, has nothing to do with their intentions to contest election conventions.

They've released a statement on the issue this evening.

Kieran McCarthy from Cobh in Cork was expelled from the party this weekend, while Melissa Mullane from Mallow has been suspended for a year.

According to Sinn Fein, it follows a review of the party's structures in the constituency of East Cork.

However the party is refusing to say why they've taken the decision, saying the report and its recommendations are 'internal to Sinn Féin'. The party does however say they "were given the reasons for the decisions" at a meeting in Cork yesterday, and will have 21 days to appeal the decision.

Councillors McCarthy and Mullane had both expressed an interest in running in the next general election, and were pushing for the party to run two candidates in Cork East.

The party already has one TD - Sandra McLellan - in the four-seater constituency.

Mr McCarthy says he was not told the reason for his expulsion.

Speaking to Newstalk Lunchtime, he said: "Part of the review took on board another investigation that had been, in our opinion, resolved satisfactorily, we were told it wasn't and there was other stuff uncovered".

"They refused to give me the information," he added.