FOUR DIFFERENT versions of the role the presidency could play in the current difficult times for Ireland were outlined to the MacGill Summer School last night.
Four of the five main candidates set out their platforms: Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell, Labour’s Michael D Higgins and Independent contenders Mary Davis and Seán Gallagher.
The organisers were told on behalf of Senator David Norris that he was not available.
Mr Mitchell said: “Ireland now expects that the president be a symbol of hope, a catalyst for change, an influencer of thought, a force for the future. We have seen just how effective the presidency can be in good times.
“Now is our opportunity to see how effective it can be in bad times.” Recalling his own family circumstances where his mother was left a widow with nine children, and “went to work at four in the morning, cleaning offices”, Mr Mitchell said: “Tough times form you or fray you. They formed me and filled me with an ardour [and] an energy to fight and change things for the better.
“I want to rekindle Declan Costello’s philosophy of a just society and to promote real unity in diversity: that is how I propose to serve the welfare of the people.”
Mr Higgins said Ireland was “in need of transformation” now “we have lost much of our economic sovereignty and independence”.
In recent times there had been an “unrestrained individualism and an almost reverential approach to wealth and speculation”, he said.
“Ireland must now, I believe, move beyond recrimination and cynicism and draw on our strengths and on the very best aspects of ourselves,” he added.
“I believe the presidency has a powerful contribution to make to this transformation.” As a candidate he was offering “a vision of a radically inclusive citizenship, in a creative society, worthy of a real republic – making us proud to be Irish in the world”.
If elected he would “take a strong interest in the deliberations and outcomes of the national constitutional convention proposed by the Government”.
Independent candidate Mary Davis said the presidency “can and must play an especially important role in national restoration in the years ahead”.
She said the next holder of the office, “should hit the ground running with a strong programme of work to help in the process of transforming Ireland”.
When she first began working with people with a disability they were “marginalised, patronised, and often institutionalised” and she had played her part in changing that.
As president she would promote Ireland as a destination for inward investment.
Her presidency would “focus on building new trade links, on reinforcing the relationship with our existing partners, and on the work that Ireland is doing to combat poverty and disease”.
Seán Gallagher said the next president should play a huge part in setting the tone and defining the key issues in the next five years.
“There is no constitutional role allowing for this but it is exactly what President Robinson and President McAleese did.” He wanted “to put enterprise at the heart of the next presidency and help to tackle the scourge of unemployment”.
He knew from a life-time of working in communities and enterprise that “there can be no new beginning unless we all work together”.
