Fianna Fáil to choose ‘definitive position' on Irish presidential election by the end of the month
The Taoiseach has said his party will take 'some definitive position' by the end of this month, and has already 'taken soundings'.
Highly placed sources said the party needs a 'run out' for the presidency for the first time since backing Mary McAleese, from Northern Ireland, in 1997.
Mrs McAleese was unopposed when she nominated herself for a second term in 2004. By its expiry in 2011, Fianna Fáil was being blamed for the disastrous economic crash and chose to sit out the contest that elected President Michael D Higgins.
Independent Seán Gallagher, acknowledged as being from the Fianna Fáil gene pool, contested both the 2011 and 2018 elections, with Fianna Fáil backing President Higgins for a renewed mandate on the basis of his performance over the first seven years.
The Executive Council will decide in the coming weeks the timeline and process for the selection of a Fine Gael candidate
It is believed Micheál Martin wants the party to run a candidate this time round, although he has made clear it will not be himself. The parliamentary party will officially select a candidate – with the leader looming over it.
Mr Martin previously oversaw the expulsion of Bertie Ahern from Fianna Fáil, which he has since rejoined, which does not bode well for a possible run by the former taoiseach – a three-time general election winner.
'We'll assess it in the next few months,' a senior source said of the election. 'It will be a different election to the ones we've had for the last while. Things generally don't firm up until after the summer.'
It is certain that there will be no agreed government candidate backed by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. A spokesperson for Fine Gael said: 'The Executive Council will decide in the coming weeks the timeline and process for the selection of a Fine Gael candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.'
Tánaiste Simon Harris has already made it abundantly clear that Fine Gael, which has never won the presidency, and which chose not to run a candidate in 2018, will be doing so this time.
Its last candidate, Gay Mitchell, garnered just 6.4pc of first preferences in 2011 and was placed fourth, after beating Mairead McGuinness to the nomination.
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A spokesperson for the Labour Party said it 'continues to work with cross-party colleagues in the hope to run a candidate to continue the legacy of President Michael D Higgins'.
Mr Higgins was formerly nominated by the Labour Party, which now requires the support of the Social Democrats to reach the 20 Oireachtas members needed to nominate. Both parties were elected with 11 TDs, but Eoin Hayes has since been suspended by the Social Democrats over his sale of shares from a company which supplies technology to the Israeli military.
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik is understood to have been sounding out one or two targets, with some reluctance expressed in return that any 'combined left' effort would be badged with Sinn Féin.
Ms Bacik wrote to the Social Democrats at the start of the year in pursuit of a joint venture, and also to Roderic O'Gorman, the sole Dáil representative of the Green Party.
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