A FIANNA Fáil Senator is canvassing party colleagues in the Dáil and Seanad with a view to gathering enough Oireachtas signatures to allow Senator David Norris be a candidate in the presidential election.
Senator Daragh O’Brien confirmed last night he will ask colleagues in coming days to help Senator Norris’s efforts to get on the ticket.
It came as 12 Oireachtas members appeared alongside Senator Norris at an event yesterday to pledge their support for his nomination. With a total of 13, including himself, Mr Norris is seven short of the 20 Oireachtas signatures he needs for his name to appear on the ballot paper. The Dublin University Senator said he was “highly confident” he could attain that number.
In what will be seen as a major fillip to the Norris campaign, Mr O’Brien said he was taking the initiative in a personal capacity.
“It’s very important for the democratic process,” he said. “I have a lot of personal regard for him. He is a very good parliamentarian. If people want to vote for a man who is as popular as he is, they should have the option to do so,” he said.
Mr O’Brien said he disagreed with the current candidate selection rules, which he described as “archaic”.
“I think he should be in the race. It’s simply to ensure there’s no democratic deficit. It’s not Fianna Fáil backing his candidacy. It’s us saying he deserves to be on the ticket,” he said.
Yesterday’s event was being received as a marked change of strategy by the Norris campaign. Over the past three months, Mr Norris and two other Independent candidates, Seán Gallagher and Mary Davis, have each sought the backing of four of the State’s 34 local authorities.
However, while Mr Gallagher and Ms Davis have acquired the backing of at least four, Mr Norris has only gained the provisional support of one authority, Fingal Country Council in Dublin.
A controversy over remarks he made about sexuality in a magazine interview a decade ago were seen as major factors in his failure to secure the nominations.
Yesterday Mr Norris dismissed suggestions he was giving up on local authorities and focusing only on TDs and Senators.
Asked if he considered his efforts to persuade local authorities to back him as a failure, he said: “I do not consider it a failure. It was an exercise in democracy. I want to talk to people through their representatives.
“I want to take a challenge and if it exposes some issues about the democratic process then I am delighted.”
Mr Norris said he was in “active negotiations” with other Oireachtas members, Independents and members of political parties.
He said he had had no official contact with either Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil but had spoken to individuals from both parties.
His supporters are: TDs Finian McGrath; Maureen O’Sullivan; Catherine Murphy; Mick Wallace; Stephen Donnelly; Thomas Pringle; John Halligan; Luke “Ming” Flanagan; and Senators John Crown, Seán Barrett; Mary Ann O’Brien; Marie Louise O’Donnell; David Norris.