The Government has questioned an opposition Bill to allow for changing the way presidential candidates are nominated. The Minister of State for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dan Wallace, said it was "strange" that Fine Gael was introducing the Bill, the 18th Amendment of the Constitution Bill, now.
He said a similar Bill had been published last March when Fine Gael was in government, but it did not seek to provide time for a debate.
"A Bill passed at that stage could have been implemented for the current election, whereas that opportunity has now, of course, passed by."
The Bill, introduced by Fine Gael's spokesman on social, community and family affairs, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, aims to allow 20,000 electors to nominate a presidential candidate.
Mr Wallace said there was a widely-held perception that political parties "have this area all sewn up," but that was not true.
Previous elections since 1937 showed that of a total of 12 candidates, four have claimed not to be members of a political party at the time of their nomination, he said. Two other non-party candidates, Douglas Hyde and Cearbhaill O Dalaigh, had served as President.
Introducing the Bill, Mr O'Keeffe said that the idea of 20,000 electors nominating a presidential candidate was not radical. Ireland had the most restrictive presidential electoral procedure in Europe.
Finland and Lithuania allowed for 20,000 signatures, while it was 7,500 in Portugal and 1,500 in Iceland.
Such a procedure would make the process more liberal and democratic and allow people to have more say. It would also end "restrictive practices."