DECLARATION:PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANT Dana Rosemary Scallon has said she does not want to be the "what if?" candidate who could not run because the required number of 20 Oireachtas members failed to give her a nomination.
However, the former member of the European Parliament and Eurovision Song Contest winner said it was “highly likely” she would need support from “any and all quarters”, including Fianna Fáil.
At a news conference in a Dublin city-centre hotel yesterday afternoon, she said she was asking Oireachtas members to “exercise their constitutional right” to nominate an Independent candidate.
“It’s clear that the people of Ireland do want a more open process,” she said. She recalled that in the 1997 presidential election she had “opened the door for Independents to seek nomination for the presidential race through the county council route”.
On that occasion she came third in the election with 13.82 per cent of the vote, behind the winner, Fianna Fáil nominee Mary McAleese, and Fine Gael’s Mary Banotti, but well ahead of the Labour-backed Adi Roche.
She added: “As nominations close on September 28th, I am asking the members of the Oireachtas to grant me a nomination so that the people of Ireland can make their judgment.”
In the interests of equality she was also asking Oireachtas members to nominate a second woman in addition to Independent candidate Mary Davis.
She added: “I wouldn’t want this to be known as the ‘what if?’ presidential election.” However, she declined to say how many TDs had promised to nominate her.
“I am not going to give you numbers at this stage. I do have support from the Independents and I did approach any Oireachtas members who would be open to give a nomination. I therefore did approach the Fianna Fáil members when they had decided not to put forward their own candidate.”
Conceding that she would probably need support from members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, she said: “It is highly likely I will need support from any and all quarters.” In all her political activities including her years as MEP for Connacht-Ulster from 1999 to 2004, she had “always put the people of this country first”.
When it was put to her that her involvement in the successful campaign to reject the Nice treaty in June 2001 was putting some TDs and Senators off, she said: “My position on Europe has never been anti-Europe.”
Asked why she had left it so late to seek a nomination in view of the fact that the closing date is so soon, she said: “We still have a good number of Independents who are not committed.” She was requesting the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to decide at its meeting this morning to allow members to nominate Independent candidates. “I would very much ask that,” she said.
When it was put to her that some sections of the population such as the gay community and those with a pro-choice view on abortion would have reservations about her candidacy, she said: “I respect other people. I am not judgmental.”
