any support for a candidate to be elected to the highest office in the land?
The presidential race had vanished from view in the media. The October election might seem a long way off, but away from the public gaze potential candidates were conscious of the time limits for winning a nomination. There were a lot of dominoes to be put in place, and summer would be a political vacuum as the Oireachtas shut down and councillors too went on annual holidays.
To win a nomination to be on the presidential election ballot there were three routes. A potential candidate could nominate themselves, but only if they were a former President and had served only one term of office: two terms and you were disqualified. In theory Mary Robinson was in the frame for the 2011 race, but she let it be known that she was not going to contest the election. However, it does not rule her out from qualifying as a candidate in a future presidential election.
The traditional route for candidates is as political party nominees. This requires the support of twenty members of the Oireachtasâless than 10 per cent of the total number of TD s and senators. However, the political parties had a history of selecting a single candidate to represent them, nominating from their own ranks and then closing those ranks. The number of independents and small parties had never reached a critical mass or likely agreement on a representative candidate, but the 2011 general election opened that possibility for the first time.
Finally, a candidate could follow the path pioneered successfully fourteen years earlier by Dana and by Derek Nally and seek a nomination from four of the countryâs county or city councils.
Again, the same rules were likely to be applied by members of the major political parties, where they would be whipped in to support their own candidates, block others or abstain. A free vote would be the ideal for any non-party candidate seeking this route, but that was unlikely. If a political party had decided to nominate a party candidate it would use its parliamentary party to give the candidate that authority and then whip members to dissent or at least to abstain and exclude any other possible candidate, thereby reducing the number of candidates on the ballot paper.
Time was ticking away on the political calendar, and May was going to be a crucial month. It was an ideal time for testing the waters of public opinion and for anyone who was going to commit themselves, allowing them to make initial contacts before the summer hiatus and ideally positioning them for formal nominations in the autumn.
Â
On Sunday 1 May, Nick Webb, the new business editor of the Sunday Independent , who had succeeded former senator Shane Ross, a newly elected independent TD , would kick-start a month of media coverage of the Presidency. He announced that the entrepreneur and âDragonsâ Denâ television presenter Seán Gallagher was âto blow open the race for the Park by standing for President.â
Gallagher was a joint founder of Smarthomes, which provided wiring and equipment for new houses. At its zenith it had a staff of seventy and a turnover of more than â¬10 million a year. Gallagher had left the business with the downturn in the economy and joined the hit RTE programme with Sarah Newman of Needahotel, Bobby Kerr of Insomnia, Niall OâFarrell of Black Tie and the radio show host and media trainer Gavin Duffy.
The news pages carried a brief reference to the emergence of the new candidate, saying Gallagher hadnât declared but had claimed the backing of the independent senator and former supermarket magnate Feargal Quinn.
On his web site Gallagher said he was giving serious consideration to the consistent calls, from people in business, community organisations and disability groups, âto offer myself as an independent candidate with a clear understanding of what is needed to help rebuild our community.â
A former member
The presidential race had vanished from view in the media. The October election might seem a long way off, but away from the public gaze potential candidates were conscious of the time limits for winning a nomination. There were a lot of dominoes to be put in place, and summer would be a political vacuum as the Oireachtas shut down and councillors too went on annual holidays.
To win a nomination to be on the presidential election ballot there were three routes. A potential candidate could nominate themselves, but only if they were a former President and had served only one term of office: two terms and you were disqualified. In theory Mary Robinson was in the frame for the 2011 race, but she let it be known that she was not going to contest the election. However, it does not rule her out from qualifying as a candidate in a future presidential election.
The traditional route for candidates is as political party nominees. This requires the support of twenty members of the Oireachtasâless than 10 per cent of the total number of TD s and senators. However, the political parties had a history of selecting a single candidate to represent them, nominating from their own ranks and then closing those ranks. The number of independents and small parties had never reached a critical mass or likely agreement on a representative candidate, but the 2011 general election opened that possibility for the first time.
Finally, a candidate could follow the path pioneered successfully fourteen years earlier by Dana and by Derek Nally and seek a nomination from four of the countryâs county or city councils.
Again, the same rules were likely to be applied by members of the major political parties, where they would be whipped in to support their own candidates, block others or abstain. A free vote would be the ideal for any non-party candidate seeking this route, but that was unlikely. If a political party had decided to nominate a party candidate it would use its parliamentary party to give the candidate that authority and then whip members to dissent or at least to abstain and exclude any other possible candidate, thereby reducing the number of candidates on the ballot paper.
Time was ticking away on the political calendar, and May was going to be a crucial month. It was an ideal time for testing the waters of public opinion and for anyone who was going to commit themselves, allowing them to make initial contacts before the summer hiatus and ideally positioning them for formal nominations in the autumn.
Â
On Sunday 1 May, Nick Webb, the new business editor of the Sunday Independent , who had succeeded former senator Shane Ross, a newly elected independent TD , would kick-start a month of media coverage of the Presidency. He announced that the entrepreneur and âDragonsâ Denâ television presenter Seán Gallagher was âto blow open the race for the Park by standing for President.â
Gallagher was a joint founder of Smarthomes, which provided wiring and equipment for new houses. At its zenith it had a staff of seventy and a turnover of more than â¬10 million a year. Gallagher had left the business with the downturn in the economy and joined the hit RTE programme with Sarah Newman of Needahotel, Bobby Kerr of Insomnia, Niall OâFarrell of Black Tie and the radio show host and media trainer Gavin Duffy.
The news pages carried a brief reference to the emergence of the new candidate, saying Gallagher hadnât declared but had claimed the backing of the independent senator and former supermarket magnate Feargal Quinn.
On his web site Gallagher said he was giving serious consideration to the consistent calls, from people in business, community organisations and disability groups, âto offer myself as an independent candidate with a clear understanding of what is needed to help rebuild our community.â
A former member
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