Fine Gael MEP calls for fair selection process

NOMINATION:FINE GAEL MEP Mairéad McGuinness last night delivered a robust defence of the current role of the presidency in Ireland and said her party should hold a "democratic selection process".

This appeared to be a move by the MEP to stave off a growing perception that the nomination was there for the taking for former taoiseach John Bruton.

Reiterating strongly her intention to seek her party’s nomination for the contest, Ms McGuinness said any proposal to alter the powers of the office could be detrimental to the relationship between the president and the government of the day.

“To give executive political powers to the presidency could lead to an unhealthy and corrosive tension between the president and the government and could also render the office prey to lobbyists and pressure groups,” she said.

She said the Constitution afforded the president a unique role within which it was entirely possible to give leadership “across virtually every facet of Irish society” without the need for new powers.

Presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese had expanded and enhanced the role and position of president without any additional powers over the last 21 years, she said.

“We need to move beyond a narrow definition of power when we are talking about the presidency.

“The kind of power the president can exercise is that of soft power, which is just as important for society and for communities as traditional hard power of the political world,” Ms McGuinness said.

The MEP for Ireland East added: “I am convinced first of all that it is important for every candidate contesting the presidency to come through a democratic selection process of some kind.”

Ms McGuinness said she looked forward to being a candidate in such a process within the Fine Gael party, “and like everybody who puts themselves forward for election I will strive, might and mane, to succeed”.

The highest office in the land should be achieved by means of a democratic process, she said.

“This country is after all a democratic republic and its highest office should embody all the principles and practices of democracy,”she added.