Gallagher left with 'questions' to answer

LABOUR PARTY presidential candidate Michael D Higgins has said Independent rival Seán Gallagher has questions to answer in the aftermath of the RTÉ Frontline debate on Monday night.

Mr Higgins stressed the importance of the next president’s reputation when asked if he believed Mr Gallagher had addressed all queries about business dealings and fundraising activities.

“I believe there’s a considerable way to go to satisfactorily answer the questions that are being raised . . . they are questions that it is appropriate be answered fully and completely of any candidate and I think they are important particularly in this presidency because of the fact that everything is going to depend on reputation,” Mr Higgins said. “The president must really satisfy every concern about trust and every concern about transparency, and that would apply to any of us.”

Mr Higgins said Fianna Fáil had an honourable tradition and claimed some senior members of that party had indicated some support for his campaign.

“I admire those people who had those values which were very fine values . . . the problem about the Celtic Tiger which promised so much and which created such possibilities was that it was squandered speculatively by a narrow view,” he said.

Mr Higgins said he was not an expert in the management of companies, but there appeared to be public concern about transparency. “The public anxiety should be fully satisfied. And that’s important,” he said.

Naming Mr Gallagher for the first time, Mr Higgins said he had a “policy difference” with the leading Independent candidate “in relation to job creation”. Mr Higgins said he knew that, if elected president, he could not behave as he had done when he was a minister. But he could be “a source of inspiration” at home while assisting in attracting foreign direct investment.

“Now that’s very different from saying one wants to elect an entrepreneur. I believe in entrepreneurship, but social entrepreneurship.”

He said the president had to be “multidimensional” and “inter-generational”.

Mr Higgins said he respected all candidates, but said it was probably true to say it was now a race between two candidates: Mr Gallagher and himself. He said they came from different backgrounds, “that’s legitimate”, and they had “fundamental differences” in their vision for the country.

All candidates had to be “so fully transparent as to answer any question of trust and openness which people may put to us”. He said he was “surprised” at the manner in which Sinn Féin candidate Martin McGuinness raised a claim about Mr Gallagher allegedly collecting a €5,000 cheque for Fianna Fáil, which Mr Gallagher subsequently denied.

“It is true to say that as it unfolded more detail was emerging, but I really don’t want to get involved in labelling . . . all the questions should be answered,” he added.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said it had become clear in the closing stages of the campaign that the election had become a two-candidate contest, which he predicted would be a close one. “Close on first preferences; close in terms of transfers,” he added.

Mr Gilmore said Mr Higgins was “by far the most suitable, best candidate in the field”. He said Mr Higgins’s campaign had already attracted a very considerable amount of support from across the political spectrum and he encouraged others to “switch” their support to the Labour candidate.

He said it was “critically important” that the good reputation of the country was continued by the election of the president who would “command respect at home and abroad”. Labour, he added, was determined to do everything it could before the close of polls on Thursday night to ensure Mr Higgins was elected.