Catherine Connolly has claimed \u201cpolitics of fear\u201d is being used against her after Heather Humphreys said she has \u201clegitimate questions to answer\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Humphreys accused Ms Connolly of insulting allies of Ireland, but Ms Connolly insisted in response that she is a \u201ccommitted European\u201d.<\/p>\n
The two women are the only candidates in the presidential race after several high-profile figures failed to secure nominations from elected politicians and after Fianna Fail\u2019s Jim Gavin withdrew.<\/p>\n
A Business Post\/Red C poll, carried out from October 1 to 7, put Ms Connolly on 36pc, Ms Humphreys on 25pc, and Mr Gavin on 12pc.<\/p>\n
Mr Gavin withdrew from the race on the evening of Sunday October 5.<\/p>\n
In a Sunday Independent\/Ireland Thinks poll published last Sunday, Ms Connolly was on 32pc, nine points ahead of Fine Gael\u2019s Ms Humphreys on 23pc. Mr Gavin was on 15pc.<\/p>\n
In the debate on RTE\u2019s This Week programme, Ms Connolly rejected claims from Ms Humphreys that she is not pro-business or pro-Europe, and described allegations that she had insulted allies of Ireland as \u201cinaccurate\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI have been pro-business all my life. My father was a qualified plasterer and then became a small builder. I fully understand the business side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m absolutely pro-European. Asking questions of the military industrial complex and the direction that the compass is going in Europe, it\u2019s not the same as anti-European. I\u2019m a committed European and a committed European asks questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Humphreys said: \u201cYou\u2019ve managed to insult our allies. You\u2019ve insulted Germany, you\u2019ve insulted France, you\u2019ve insulted the UK, our nearest neighbour, you\u2019ve insulted the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t go without consequences. If you\u2019re a president of this country, you have to meet other leaders and other heads of state, and how are you going to speak to them? How are you going to talk to them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly said: \u201cThere were so many things said there that I\u2019ve insulted people. I don\u2019t recall ever insulting anybody in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added she \u201cwould hope\u201d Russia would withdraw from parts of Ukraine it has occupied since 2014 as part of a future peace agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, you can\u2019t invade a sovereign country, but at some stage, sense has to prevail,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The dust is still settling on the dramatic shake-up to the presidential election caused by Mr Gavin\u2019s withdrawal a week ago.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin addressed a party event on Saturday night, telling the gathering he is sorry \u201cfor how things turned out\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told media at the event he is \u201cglad\u201d the issue that prompted Mr Gavin\u2019s withdrawal had been \u201cresolved\u201d, after Mr Gavin reportedly repaid his former tenant 3,300 euro.<\/p>\n
Mr Gavin withdrew from campaigning for the presidency after Sunday World deputy editor Niall Donald claimed he tried to recover 3,300 euros in overpaid rent from Mr Gavin 16 years ago.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said he would vote for Ms Humphreys in the presidential election, but said it would show \u201ca certain degree of arrogance\u201d if he told his party how to cast their votes.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly said Mr Martin was \u201centitled\u201d to back Ms Humphreys and that it had \u201cclarified\u201d that \u201cthe people of Ireland have a clear choice to make now\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RTE Radio, she said Mr Martin\u2019s support for Ms Humphreys indicates there is \u201cno difference\u201d in the philosophies of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all knew that for a long time, and he\u2019s actually set it out now and confirmed it,\u201d Ms Connolly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m saying to the ordinary members of Fianna Fail, you know my track record in the Dail, you know my history in relation to standing up for social justice, for equality, for violence against women, and in relation to the north.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Humphreys said if Fianna Fail supporters were going to vote for Mr Gavin, \u201cI would ask them to give me their number two please\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the debate, Ms Humphreys remarked that she could apply for a job in RTE, referring to all the broadcast debates she has taken part in, while Ms Connolly said \u201chere we go again\u201d as she entered the radio studio.<\/p>\n
Gr\u00e1inne N\u00ed Aodha, PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Connolly has claimed \u201cpolitics of fear\u201d is being used against her after Heather Humphreys said she has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,1921,18,13,14,4771,553,6,555,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5,59,47,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-119099","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-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-fianna-fail","15":"tag-fine-gael","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-heather-humphreys","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-jim-gavin","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-presidential-election","27":"tag-sinn-fein","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119099","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=119099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}