Independent presidential candidate accuses Fine Gael rival Heather Humphreys of negative campaign, Tabitha Monahan <\/p>\n
Independent candidate Catherine Connolly has defended her decision to vote \u201cno\u201d to the Lisbon and Nice treaties.
Her comments came after her opponent, Fine Gael\u2019s Heather Humphreys, accused Ms Connolly of voting against \u201cevery European treaty\u201d during an RT\u00c9 presidential debate on Sunday, which Ms Connolly said was \u201cabsolutely wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
After the debate, Ms Connolly was asked if she had ever voted in favour of an EU treaty, to which she said: \u201cProbably, yes. I\u2019d have to think back.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that she remembered canvassing against the Lisbon treaty but did not remember canvassing against any other treaty.<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly confirmed yesterday that she had voted \u201cno\u201d to the Lisbon and Nice treaties.<\/p>\n
\u201cVoting \u2018no\u2019 in relation to a treaty is not a negative thing,\u201d Ms Connolly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s indicating the concerns that I and lots of people had. And, in fact, in voting \u2018no\u2019 we had to vote a second time on Nice and on Lisbon and we were given absolute, solemn promises in relation to our neutrality that seem to mean nothing at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s News at One, she added: \u201cBecause we are now going down a road of saying that the Triple Lock is not a core part of our neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Connolly also accused Fine Gael of engaging in a campaign that is \u201cengendering fear\u201d. The Galway West TD said her opponent\u2019s party was running a \u201cnegative campaign\u201d about her foreign policy positions on the US, Nato, the Middle East and Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening here in the last few weeks is a policy of fear, of diminishing the candidate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I say you\u2019re actually not just diminishing me, you\u2019re diminishing the role of the presidency, and you\u2019re also diminishing the people on the ground who are all actively canvassing for me, actively looking for hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ms Humphreys said Ms Connolly was a \u201cdecent woman\u201d but that her views were \u201cdifferent to mine\u201d and described her as \u201cfar left\u201d.<\/p>\n
She made the comments at the Jameson Distillery in Dublin city centre, after being asked to say something positive about Ms Connolly.<\/p>\n
Ms Humphreys outlined her pitch for the presidency, saying she \u201cwon\u2019t let this country down\u201d when representing Ireland abroad.<\/p>\n
Whatever money spent on trade missions is well spent<\/p>\n
She added that, as president, she would travel on trade missions in conjunction with the enterprise minister, as well as put a focus on trade during state visits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever money spent on trade missions is well spent, because the benefits come back to Ireland,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president goes on various different state visits, and I think it\u2019s very important that on those visits, you put a big focus on trade. That\u2019s the support that I want to give our companies, our indigenous companies, to find new markets abroad, and indeed, to seek investment for this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether this pitch crossed the line into the Government\u2019s remit and if she was stuck in \u201cminister mode\u201d, she said: \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Questioned whether she was suggesting a second enterprise minister, she added: \u201cNo, absolutely not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I will be a president that will speak up for people. I will be a president that will focus on communities, that will focus on the volunteers and the huge contribution that they are making.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my intention to have a community award for people who step up to the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite sure that people want to see Ireland being represented abroad, not just on trade missions, but culturally and diplomatically. The president is the first diplomat of this country, when the president goes abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I can say to you is, if I go abroad, I won\u2019t let this country down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about Lucia O\u2019Farrell, whose son Shane was cycling home when he was struck by a car and killed in Co Monaghan in 2011, Ms Humphreys said she could not interfere in an independent process during her time as justice minister. The D\u00e1il has heard that on the day Mr O\u2019Farrell was struck, the driver should have been in jail for breaches of bail conditions.<\/p>\n
Ms Humphreys said: \u201cI spoke to \u00adLucia O\u2019Farrell at length, the first time I spoke to her. As I said, it was very sad what happened to her son, Shane, and my heart still goes out to her, because the family have had to endure a terrible, terrible loss. I did make representations for Lucia and her family on a number of occasions, and I really did my best.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m sorry if she thinks I didn\u2019t do enough, but I did my best for Lucia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an independent process taking place at that time, I could not interfere in that process, because it could have derailed the entire process.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I just say that I\u2019m glad that \u00adLucia has got a state apology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent presidential candidate accuses Fine Gael rival Heather Humphreys of negative campaign, Tabitha Monahan Independent candidate Catherine Connolly…\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-121209","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\/121209","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=121209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121209\/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=121209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}