{"id":52744,"date":"2025-09-09T10:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T10:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/52744\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T10:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T10:44:13","slug":"fianna-fail-to-pick-presidential-election-candidate-at-meeting-in-leinster-house-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/52744\/","title":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il to pick presidential election candidate at meeting in Leinster House \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> will decide on Tuesday who its candidate will be in the upcoming presidential election. <\/a><\/p>\n

A special meeting of the party\u2019s 71-strong parliamentary party will take place to decide whether to choose former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin<\/a> or Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The party\u2019s TDs, senators and MEPs are due to meet in Leinster House at 11.30am where Mr Gavin and Mr Kelleher will make a pitch which will be followed by a secret ballot. <\/p>\n

Mr Gavin enjoys the declared support of more than 30 members of the parliamentary party, including Taoiseach and party leader Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>, and all senior Cabinet Ministers.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Gavin arrives at the D\u00e1il before a vote to decide Fianna F\u00e1il’s candidate for the presidential election. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Mr Kelleher has just five party colleagues who have publicly declared support for him \u2013 MEP Barry Andrews, TDs P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan, James O\u2019Connor, Peter Cleere and Senator Paul Daly.<\/p>\n

Speaking as he arrived at Leinster House, Mr Gavin said: \u201ccompetition is really good\u201d.<\/p>\n

In brief remarks to reporters Mr Gavin said he had a \u201cgreat two weeks\u201d visiting Fianna F\u00e1il members \u201cup and down the length of the country\u201d and there has been \u201cgreat energy\u201d wherever he went. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward this morning to putting my view towards the party. I think competition is really good and I hope to talk to your afterwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Mr Kelleher arrived he said he was feeling \u201cexcellent\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he has been engaging with colleagues, \u201chighlighting my credentials, how I feel the presidency should go in terms of the values our party promotes across the country, the type of campaign we would be running\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said he would seek \u201cto ensure that they understand the importance of the presidency not in terms of just the constitutional powers it has but more importantly the soft power the president has in terms of speaking for citizens, advocating for citizens and those on the margins is an important aspect of the presidency as well as obligations constitutionally and ceremonial as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to presenting that to my parliamentary colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said \u201cgood robust debate\u201d is positive and that the party would make a \u201cdemocratic decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelleher said he did not know what level of support he will get in the vote but also said: \u201cThe secret ballot is there for a reason. It allows people to go and cast their vote unhindered or without fear or favour.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cautioned: \u201cIt can work both ways of course. They have that freedom and I think that\u2019s a very valuable exercise so I\u2019m looking forward to the meeting, the debate and finally the vote.\u201c<\/p>\n

\"BillyBilly Kelleher arrives at the D\u00e1il before a vote to decide Fianna F\u00e1il’s candidate for the presidential election. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

The mood within the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party in advance of the vote was taut, with some TDs leaning into the suggestion that the result would carry weight for Mr Martin and even influence the future leadership of the party. <\/p>\n

One TD known to be supportive of Mr Kelleher argued that the result would be a broader indication of who was ahead in a race to succeed Mr Martin \u2013 Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, who has been a key figure in the Gavin campaign, or Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan has also backed Mr Gavin, but was the last Cabinet Minister to do so.<\/p>\n

Others were more positive about the potential fallout, scotching suggestions that the vote signified a divide within the party. A source backing Mr Gavin said that there was \u201cstrong and widespread\u201d support for the former Dublin GAA manager. <\/p>\n

Another TD predicted that Mr Kelleher would poll north of 20 votes \u2013 but that if he moved closer to 30, it would be due to a good campaign from the Ireland South MEP and a poor performance in front of the parliamentary party by Mr Gavin. <\/p>\n

They said that there is a sense among some TDs, Senators and MEPs that Mr Martin takes backbenches \u201cfor granted\u201d and that there is \u201cannoyance\u201d about how the Taoiseach handled the process but it was not clear that this would translate into votes for Mr Kelleher.<\/p>\n

The presidential election will take place on Friday, October 24th.<\/p>\n

Nominations opened last Friday and will close on Wednesday, September 24th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il will decide on Tuesday who its candidate will be in the upcoming presidential election. A special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9316,9,10,18,13,14,4771,6,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5765,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-52744","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-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-jim-gavin","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-micheal-martin","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-presidential-election","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52744","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=52744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}