{"id":49646,"date":"2025-09-07T19:37:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T19:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49646\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T19:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T19:37:18","slug":"independent-presidential-hopefuls-criticise-fine-gael-plan-to-block-council-nominations-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49646\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent presidential hopefuls criticise Fine Gael plan to block council nominations \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent presidential hopefuls<\/a> have criticised Fine Gael<\/a>\u2019s instructions to its councillors to vote against the nomination of new candidates at special local authority meetings as \u201cundemocratic\u201d and \u201cdisappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prospective presidential candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four councils to get on the ballot paper in the election to succeed President Michael D Higgins.<\/p>\n

As the second-largest party in local government, the intervention from Fine Gael headquarters potentially narrows the path to nomination for various Independents hoping to enter the race.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael has selected former minister Heather Humphreys<\/a> as its candidate in next month\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il, which has slightly more councillors than Fine Gael, has been urged by businessman and presidential hopeful Gareth Sheridan not to issue similar instructions to its local representatives to vote against new candidates entering the race. <\/p>\n

Former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin and Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher will vie to be Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s candidate during a meeting of its parliamentary party on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mr Gavin has significantly more publicly declared support, including that of party leader and Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin, and the candidate will be selected by secret ballot. <\/p>\n

One prospective Independent candidate, former solicitor Nick Delehanty, argued the Fine Gael move to seek to block its councillors from facilitating new candidates entering the race is \u201cundemocratic\u201d, during an interview with Newstalk radio on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He suggested both he and Mr Sheridan are \u201crank outsiders\u201d and asked: \u201cwhat are they [Fine Gael] afraid of?\u201c<\/p>\n

Mr Delehanty contended: \u201cIt\u2019s an aggressive move. It\u2019s not in the spirit of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later clarified that it is the bookies and \u201cmaybe the media\u201d that categorise him as a \u201crank outsider\u201d and he believes he has \u201ca groundswell of grassroots support\u201d citing crowdfunding that has raised around \u20ac35,000.<\/p>\n

Mr Delehanty estimated there are about 15 local authorities where Independent candidates could still be nominated should they be facilitated by Fianna F\u00e1il councillors. However, if that party sends out a diktat similar to Fine Gael\u2019s \u201cthen the numbers go down to zero\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the same broadcast Mr Sheridan said Fine Gael\u2019s move was \u201cpredictable\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said from the conversations he has been having with councillors \u201cthey were willing and open and ready to facilitate the democratic process and to abstain essentially … So it\u2019s a little bit disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Sheridan questioned if such instructions to councillors \u201cwill become the norm going forward\u201d and asked if \u201cthe only presidents we\u2019ll ever be able to choose from will come from within the walls of Leinster House\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think that\u2019s a dangerous precedent to set.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also argued: \u201cIf Fine Gael were really confident in their own candidate Heather [Humphreys] they would allow a fair and just competition to take place and let the electorate decide, because ultimately, it\u2019s the people of Ireland that should choose the president of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Fianna F\u00e1il issuing similar instructions to its councillors would definitely make the route to a nomination \u201cmore difficult\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Sheridan added: \u201cIt\u2019s not impossible by any means. And I\u2019m sure there are councillors up and in the country that are feeling, you know, as irritated with this as we would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI would urge Fianna F\u00e1il not to follow suit and to allow democracy play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine Gael\u2019s instructions to its councillors came in a message from the party\u2019s general secretary, John Carroll.<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u201cFine Gael public representatives cannot in any way facilitate the nomination of any candidate other than the ratified Fine Gael candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event of a vote at any Local Authority on the nomination of a person other than the ratified Fine Gael candidate, the Fine Gael local authority members are whipped to oppose that nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a Fianna F\u00e1il councillor and municipal district mayor has called on Waterford City and County Council not to allow former MMA fighter Conor McGregor to seek their backing in next month\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n

The council has announced that it will hold a special meeting for presidential hopefuls on Friday. September 19th. Those looking for a nomination will be allowed to give a five-minute presentation before councillors, who will then be able to question the candidates for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

It is understood that more than a dozen presidential hopefuls have applied to attend the meeting, including Mr McGregor.<\/p>\n

The metropolitan district mayor, Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Adam Wyse, told WLRFM that Mr McGregor should not \u201ceven be considered for a presidential nomination. His record is one of violence, vulgarity and vanity, and the very idea of him as president is an insult to the Irish people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cllr Wyse pointed out that the presidency is meant to embody \u201cdignity, compassion and respect\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201c(Mr) McGregor offers only chaos, controversy and a circus. Allowing him to use our chamber as a platform would be a mistake. I am calling on my fellow councillors to join me in refusing him a hearing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent presidential hopefuls have criticised Fine Gael\u2019s instructions to its councillors to vote against the nomination of new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9316,9,10,18,13,14,4771,553,6,555,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-49646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-billy-kelleher","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","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-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49646","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=49646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}