{"id":116834,"date":"2025-10-12T05:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/116834\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T05:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:47:14","slug":"ivan-yates-no-more-involved-in-my-campaign-than-joe-brolly-is-in-catherine-connollys-heather-humphreys-on-former-ministers-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/116834\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Yates \u2018no more involved in my campaign than Joe Brolly is in Catherine Connolly\u2019s\u2019 \u2013 Heather Humphreys on former minister\u2019s comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Fine Gael\u2019s candidate Ms Humphreys canvassed in Co Tipperary, while independent Ms Connolly met with people in counties Waterford and Wexford.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Upperchurch Drombane GAA, Ms Humphreys was asked about comments from former Fine Gael minister and broadcaster Ivan Yates calling on Fine Gael to \u201csmear the bejaysus out of\u201d Ms Connolly.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly said she was \u201cabsolutely shocked\u201d when she heard Mr Yates\u2019s comments and said it \u201ctrivialised\u201d the election campaign.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys responded: \u201cIvan Yates is a commentator, and he hasn\u2019t been in Fine Gael for the last 25 years, and he\u2019s certainly not advising me on my campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s entitled to say what he thinks himself. He\u2019s no more involved in my campaign than Joe Brolly is involved in Catherine Connolly\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I won\u2019t be a candidate that\u2019s going to smear anybody, but I will ask the hard questions, and I have already a number of issues that I think Catherine needs to clarify.\u201d<\/p>\n

She raised the issue again of Ms Connolly giving a woman with a Special Criminal Court conviction access to the Dail for six months while Garda clearance was pending.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the rules are very clear, you must have Garda vetting. We talk about trying to unite people in this country, we\u2019re talking about a united Ireland. Eirigi are the very people that tried to pull down the Good Friday Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also raised questions about using \u20ac3,691 of parliamentary allowance for a trip to Syria in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do believe she needs to answer those questions, but those are straight questions, and that\u2019s acceptable in any campaign,\u201d Ms Humphreys said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the questions that will be debated during the campaign, but I certainly won\u2019t be smearing anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys also thanked Taoiseach and Fianna F\u00e1il leader Miche\u00e1l Martin for saying he would vote for her \u2013 though he said he would not be recommending to members how they should cast their vote.<\/p>\n

\"Fine<\/p>\n

Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys speaking to the media during a visit to Upperchurch Drombane GAA in Tipperary while on the campaign trail (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Taoiseach reveals he will be voting for Heather Humphreys<\/p>\n

Mr Martin\u2019s comments came ahead of an annual Fianna F\u00e1il grassroots event on Saturday evening in Dublin, days after he apologised to his parliamentary party for how the party\u2019s presidential candidate Jim Gavin fared.<\/p>\n

Mr Gavin withdrew as a presidential contender after a tenant claimed he tried to recover \u20ac3,300 in overpaid rent from Mr Gavin 16 years ago.<\/p>\n

This leaves just two candidates in the race ahead of polling day in less than two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

Appealing for votes, Ms Humphreys said she was \u201ca centre ground candidate\u201d at a \u201cdivisive\u201d time who \u201cwon\u2019t fall out with our European neighbours\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need all the votes I can get, There\u2019s no question about that,\u201d she said as she pledged to travel on trade missions \u201call over the world\u201d if she became president.<\/p>\n

\"Fine<\/p>\n

Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys meets Ruth Ryan, aged four, holding her teddy Bruno, during a visit to Upperchurch Drombane GAA in Tipperary (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

After surviving a leadership wobble during the week, Mr Martin said he would not be telling party members who to vote for, stating that \u201cwhen you start telling people how to vote they generally go in the opposite direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about discontent within Fianna F\u00e1il, junior minister Niall Collins said the issue needed to be put into perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is dead,\u201d he said on RT\u00c9 Radio.<\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys said she had received phone calls from some Fianna F\u00e1il members \u201cwho will definitely vote for me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Fine<\/p>\n

Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys cuts a cake at half-time during a visit to a game at Upperchurch Drombane GAA in Tipperary while on the campaign trail (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just like to thank the Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin for saying that he\u2019s supporting me and he\u2019s going to vote for me. I do appreciate that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Asked about her stance on fox hunting, Ms Humphreys said she is in favour of \u201crural pursuits\u201d, stating that there are \u201cmany controls\u201d and \u201cmany regulations\u201d in place.<\/p>\n

The candidates are entering the final week of campaigning, which includes a one-on-one debate on RT\u00c9 Radio on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The last poll conducted, which was published last Sunday before Mr Gavin\u2019s withdrawal, put Ms Connolly ahead of Ms Humphreys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, Fine Gael\u2019s candidate Ms Humphreys canvassed in Co Tipperary, while independent Ms Connolly met with people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,6,555,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-116834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-heather-humphreys","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-presidential-election","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116834","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=116834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}