{"id":10935,"date":"2025-08-20T06:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10935\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T06:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:09:07","slug":"take-current-speculation-on-fine-gael-presidential-nomination-with-a-grain-of-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10935\/","title":{"rendered":"Take current speculation on Fine Gael presidential nomination ‘with a grain of salt’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland South MEP Se\u00e1n Kelly has dismissed the suggestion that there are not sufficient votes to get him a nomination to be Fine Gael\u2019s candidate in the upcoming presidential election.<\/p>\n

The former GAA president told The Echo there were two weeks to go until the nominations close, and he would take current speculation \u201cwith a grain of salt\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today, he and former minister Heather Humphreys both declared their intention to seek the Fine Gael nomination for the upcoming presidential election. It came after the shock announcement last week that Mairead McGuinness was withdrawing from the race on health grounds.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys and Mr Kelly had previously ruled themselves out of the contest, when it was believed that Ms McGuinness would be Fine Gael\u2019s candidate.<\/p>\n

Each candidate will require the backing of 20 members of the parliamentary party, as well as 25 councillors and five members of the executive council.<\/p>\n

Speculation this evening suggested that there were not sufficient votes available to allow Mr Kelly a pathway to a nomination. There are 59 members in Fine Gael\u2019s parliamentary party, but precedence would seem to dictate that neither the leader, Simon Harris, or the director of elections, Martin Heydon, can vote, leaving 57 available nominations.<\/p>\n

With 38 members of the parliamentary party already declaring for Ms Humphreys, that would appear to only leave 19 available nominations.<\/p>\n

However, when asked on Tuesday night for a comment, Mr Kelly remained upbeat.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cDo you know, I\u2019d take that with a grain of salt at this stage,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople can be quoted for saying things but you never know. We only started today, so we\u2019ll keep working on it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

A number of Fine Gael representatives in Cork gave their opinions on who they felt would be the eventual party candidate.<\/p>\n

Colm Burke, TD for Cork North Central, said both candidates would make \u201csuperb\u201d presidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cSe\u00e1n gave fantastic leadership in the GAA and has done a wonderful job in Europe over the years, he is a really good candidate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeather is a really good candidate, she handled her ministry in Social Protection very well, and carried out a lot of new initiatives. I have already indicated that I am supporting Heather. I have weighed it up very carefully, and I have also consulted with members of my own constituency, and that is the view that I have taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Buttimer, Cork South Central TD and minister for state at the Department of Rural and Community Development, said he was happy to declare his support for Ms Humphreys.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cShe has been an excellent minister and she has been a good colleague of mine in the Oireachtas,\u201d he said. \u201cI have seen that she has the ability and the vision to be an extraordinary president through her work in the Decade of Commemorations, but also, given her own perspective and background, I believe she\u2019ll be an excellent president, and I\u2019m very happy to support her.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Cork North West TD John Paul O\u2019Shea said: \u201cHeather is a great supporter of rural Ireland, and she has a track record of achievement. She has my complete support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Damian Boylan, Cork city councillor for the North West ward, said he was very happy to put his support behind Ms Humphreys. “I think she will be an excellent president of Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Senator Noel O\u2019Donovan posted on social media that he was delighted to hear that Ms Humphreys was seeking the Fine Gael nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked with Heather over the years, her commitment to deliver for communities has been proven,\u201d he stated. \u201cShe will make an excellent Uachtar\u00e1n na h\u00c9ireann.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noel McCarthy, Cork East TD, said earlier today that he was delighted to support Mr Kelly, who had launched Mr McCarthy\u2019s election campaign both in 2016, when he was unsuccessful, and in 2024, when he was elected.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think he\u2019ll be a great choice, he got 124,000 votes in the European election, he\u2019s a people person, and I think he appeals to a wide audience, not just in the Fine Gael party, but to a lot of people out there,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very lucky in that we have two great candidates in Se\u00e1n and in Heather, she was a great minister who did great work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that whoever is selected everyone in Fine Gael will row in behind them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the emergence of Ms Humphreys as favourite, Mr McCarthy, said: \u201cIf Se\u00e1n doesn\u2019t have the numbers, I have great sympathy for him, but I know he would agree with me that Heather was a great minister who did fantastic work, she\u2019s a lovely person, very decent woman, and I think she would be a brilliant president.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland South MEP Se\u00e1n Kelly has dismissed the suggestion that there are not sufficient votes to get him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,2670,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-10935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cork-politics","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-presidential-election","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}