Independent candidates Mary Davis and Sean Gallagher have today received the necessary backing of at least four local authorities enabling them to contest the forthcoming presidential election.
Ms Davis had already secured the support of Galway and Sligo and today received formal nominations from six others; Monaghan, South Tipperary, Kerry, Wexford and Wicklow and Waterford county councils.
Ms Davis said she was "delighted" to take her place as an official candidate for the election after securing her third and fourth formal county council nominations from Monaghan and South Tipperary, respectively.
"As this campaign progresses I believe that a real debate should begin about the type of presidency our people need today, about the values that we wish to see reflected from Áras an Uachtaráin, and about the way in which the presidency can work to repair Ireland's reputation on the international stage," Ms Davis said. "This kind of healthy debate is what the country needs and the voters deserve."
Independent candidate and Dragon's Den personality Sean Gallagher this evening received the backing of Cork City Council to contest the presidential election.
Thirteen councillors voted for the entrepreneur's inclusion on the ticket with eight against and eight abstentions. Fine Gael abstained from the vote with the exception of Cllr Pat Gosch who voted against.
Earlier, Clare County Council ratified his nomination, and he already had nominations from Leitrim and Meath County Councils.
Writing on his twitter feed Mr Gallagher said he was "thrilled" to have received his fourth council nomination from Cork. Mr Gallagher has ties to the area as his wife Trish (nee O'Connor) is from Kanturk, Co Cork.
In his address to the city council last week Mr Gallagher spoke of the challenges facing Ireland and how the country needs to restore its reputation.
"Ireland needs to go back to and develop sustainable principles. We have to work out what we are good at and live life with our abilities and not our disabilities. We need to focus on what we can do," he said.
Elsewhere, it seems that there is little prospect of Fianna Fáil backing Senator David Norris for president or facilitating his return to the election campaign, according to party sources.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said today the party will take a “collective decision” on how it will treat approaches from presidential candidates seeking its backing.
Despite reports that Mr Norris is set to re-enter the contest he left in controversial circumstances in July, there was little evidence yesterday that he could muster the support of 20 Oireachtas members to sign his papers.
The Senator is due to appear on next Friday's Late Late Show, where he may announce his intention to rejoin the race, a Sunday newspaper reported yesterday. Before he dropped out of the race because of controversy over his intervention in a rape case in Israel, the TCD Senator had the support of most of the Independent TDs.
However, Independents such as Finian McGrath and Catherine Murphy have withdrawn support and say that will not change.
This means that the Senator would have to seek the support of another political bloc in the Oireachtas, most probably Fianna Fáil as it is not running a candidate.
However, party sources said this was unlikely. One said that Mr Norris had been arrogant in his approach to the party earlier in the summer, when he needed only a few nominations. Another described his possible re-emergence as a candidate as a “distraction” which was “of no concern” to the party.
A Fianna Fáil spokesman said the party’s position was that it had decided not to run a candidate. Once the nominations were in, it would look at those running and then decide whether to support a particular candidate. He said the question of facilitating a candidate by nominating the person was not an issue for Fianna Fáil because no one had contacted the party to seek such support.
Mr Norris could secure a nomination by obtaining the support of four county councils, but he was unsuccessful in this approach earlier in the year. Time is also running out for putting down motions at local authorities with many councils having already promised their nomination to either Ms Davis or Mr Gallagher.
Gerry Adams told his party's ardfheis at the weekend that Sinn Féin should support the nomination of a candidate to be president. However, he did not disclose whether the party would stand a candidate or who that candidate might be.
The other declared contenders for the presidential election are Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell and the Labour Party's Michael D Higgins.
The election is due to be held on October 27th, 2011.