Former minister for education Mary Hanafin has said she would be open to have a conversation with Fianna Fáil about seeking a nomination to run in the presidential election.
Ms Hanafin, a former TD for Dún Laoghaire, said this weekend that many people from different aspects of life had raised the possibility with her.
“If Fianna Fáil wanted to have that conversation with me, I would be open to it,” she said.
She said the decision would be ultimately one for Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
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“It would be [up to] the party leader to decide if he wants to have that conversation with me,” she said.
A native of Co Tipperary and a former schoolteacher in the Dominican College, Sion Hill, Dublin, Ms Hanafin was first elected to the Dáil in 1997.
She was appointed minister for education and science by then taoiseach Bertie Ahern in September 2004, having been government chief whip from 2002 to 2004.
She subsequently served as minister of social protection and as minister for arts, tourism and sports. She was deputy leader of the party for a period of five weeks at the start of 2011, appointed by Mr Martin after he succeeded Brian Cowen as leader.
Ms Hanafin lost her seat in the 2011 election and failed to regain it in 2016. Her cause was not helped by the fact that the constituency became an effective three-seater that year, because outgoing ceann comhairle Seán Barrett was automatically re-elected.
She was elected to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in 2014 and 2019, serving as cathaoirleach between 2022 and 2023.
In 2020, she again stood in the general election but was not successful. Her running mate, Cormac Devlin, regained the seat the party had lost in 2011.
Ms Hanafin’s husband Eamon Leahy, a senior counsel, died suddenly in 2003 at the age of 46. She has started practising as a barrister in recent years.
A number of Fianna Fáil politicians have been mentioned as possible candidates for the presidential election including Mr Ahern and MEPs Barry Andrews (a former constituency colleague of Ms Hanafin’s) and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú. It is unlikely, though, that either of the MEPs will decide to run.
Fianna Fáil has not had a candidate for the presidency for almost 30 years. Mary McAleese was its candidate in 1997 and served two seven-year terms in office.
The party decided not to run a candidate in 2011 and supported the incumbent Michael D Higgins when he sought a second term in 2018.
