Key Reads
- Presidential candidates Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys clashed on the EU, the triple lock andelection campaign“smears” on Sunday as the race for the presidency entered its last full week. Read the full report.
- Our nine presidents of the Irish Republic, ranked from nine to one.
- Micheál Martin will vote for Heather Humphreys but Fianna Fáil won’t tell voters to back her.
- The Irish Times view on the Gavin withdrawal: Fianna Fáil’s costly error.
Labour TD Alan Kelly was also critical of the manner in which Catherine Connolly has answered questions during the campaign, while speaking on Tipp FM this morning.
He also criticised her for pushing out the idea of a “smear campaign” saying there should never be personalised attacks but she was doing it to “quell proper questioning.”
When it was put to him that some people might see his criticism of her as personal, Kelly denied it, reports Harry McGee.
He said that every issue he has raised was a legitimate political issue. “She’s the one who made a personal comment about me last week. I haven’t made a personal comment
Speaking on Tipp FM this morning, Labour TD Alan Kelly said Catherine Connolly’s remark about him was “snide” and “degrading.”
Last week, Connolly, when asked if she was winning over the support of Kelly, said. “I leave Alan Kelly to deal with Alan Kelly. That’s a full time job perhaps.”
Kelly said that he was a senior member of the Labour Party and the party should obviously value its own members more than somebody “who has spent the last 20 years basically attacking us”.
He accepted that the party was supporting Connolly in the election but said he had spoken to party leader Ivana Bacik about the remark.
“(Ms Bacik) said she was going to deal with it. It wasn’t a very nice thing for a presidential candidate to say and I trust Ivana will deal with it.”
Alan Kelly, Labour Party TD, announced on Tipp FM this morning, that he will vote for Fine Gael candidate, Heather Humphreys “by default.”
Labour is one of the parties backing Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign.
“It isn’t good for the country that we have only two people to vote for. And in this scenario, I have to, and lots of people like me in the Labour Party I can assure you, have to look at which one of these two candidates can represent us best.”
“And I don’t think that’s Catherine Connolly, and by default then, what’s left is Heather Humphreys.”
He said his concerns on Connolly have “doubled” since the campaign has begun.
Kelly, a former leader of the party, has made his opposition to Connolly known since before the party backed her campaign.
Independent candidate, Catherine Connolly, has a lead in the Presidential Election according to a new Business Post/Red C poll.
The survey puts Connolly’s support at 36 per cent.
Fine Gael candidate, Heather Humphreys is at 25 per cent support.
The online survey was conducted between October 2nd and 7th.
Jim Gavin is at 12 per cent, despite withdrawing from the election on October 5th. His name will remain on the ballot paper.
27 per cent of the 1,001 people who took part in the survey, remain undecided.
The margin of error in the poll is +/-3 per cent.
In yesterday’s radio debate, Connolly accused Fine Gael of “the politics of fear ... the politics of smear.”
She said her opponents were making false accusations about her instead of having a “real debate” about the presidency.
Connolly accused Fine Gael of following the advice by former minister Ivan Yates, who advised the party in a podcast to “smear” her.
Humphreys denied the charge, saying that Yates has nothing to do with her campaign, adding that he has as much to do with her campaign as Joe Brolly - who apologised on Friday for comments he made about Humphreys on his podcast - had with Connolly’s.
While speaking on RTÉ radio’s This Week, both candidates promised to speak up for people if elected president.
Humphreys said she would "never be afraid to speak up, to be a voice for the people of this country, to be the conscience of the nation.”
Connolly said she would be a president who was “unafraid to speak out” though she acknowledged that “policies are decided by Government.”
Speaking before a trade union event on Sunday evening, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said she agreed with Ms Connolly, saying she had voted against a number of European treaties. “So I think Catherine is absolutely right. This is not an either/or. You can be a passionate European and still be critical of aspects of the EU and EU policy.”
Asked if the growing influence of right wing parties across the EU might mean a shift in the union’s values, compelling her to be more critical as president, Ms Connolly said she was concerned about the rise of the right but couldn’t speculate about what might happen in the years ahead."
With the involvement of different parties of the left and tone of some of the criticism she said she has faced on her campaign, she said “this is the first time that we have united and they are afraid, they are very afraid.”
Connolly spoke to journalists after yesterday’s radio debate, she had said that while she had campaigned against Lisbon [Treaty], she had “probably” voted in favour of other referendums. “I’d say I voted for them,” she said.
Before a trade union event on Sunday evening in Dublin city centre, however, it was put to her that Fine Gael said it had found reports from local media in Galway of speeches she had made during the campaigns of the Nice Treaty and Fiscal Treaty, reports Emmet Malone.
“When I was asked today, I was clarifying that I was most active (in the Lisbon campaign). I regret not being active in other ones, actually, prior to the Lisbon Treaty,” she said.
“In the Nice Treaty, I was a member of the Labour Party, and I was trying to recall what was the policy. But when the Fiscal treaty came, in relation to austerity, I absolutely had grave difficulties.”
“But I was asked the question: ‘With that background, was I anti-European?’ And I said, I’m absolutely a committed European, and I’ve spent a year of my life in Germany, one full year, and then went back regularly. And the European Union is about a lot more. If somebody goes against the militarisation or the blatant neoliberal ideology, that doesn’t mean they’re anti-European.”
The two candidates also clashed on yesterday’s debate on the European Union.
Humphreys said that Connolly had “insulted” Germany, France, the UK and the US.
“That doesn’t go without consequence. If you are a president of this country, you have the meet other leaders,” she said. “And how are you going to speak to talk to them, will they want to talk to you?” she said.
Connolly said she was speaking out in the context of a “genocide” in Gaza and said Ireland’s neutrality was the key to being able to ask questions of powerful countries. She said she was a “committed European and a committed European asks questions”.
At a trade union event on Sunday night, Ms Connolly said she regretted “not being active” in other campaigns against EU treaties when asked about past EU treaties, reports Pat Leahy.
Good morning.
Yesterday, on RTÉ radio’s This Week, presidential candidates Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys took part in a debate moderated by David McCullagh where they clashed over several issues.
One area where they disagreed, was their position on the Triple Lock. Connolly said the triple lock is “at the core” of Irish neutrality.
She declined to say if she would refer a Bill abolishing the triple lock to the Supreme Court, because she would have to consider any Bill when it was passed.
However, she said she believed there should be a referendum on the question.
Ms Humphreys said she was in favour of abolishing the triple lock, but also that she “fully, fully” supports neutrality, pointing out that permanent UN security council members could veto Irish participation in peacekeeping missions.
