Labour councillors get free vote for presidential nomination

LABOUR PARTY councillors have been permitted a free vote if they wish to facilitate the nomination of Independent presidential candidates, in contrast to the position adopted by coalition partners Fine Gael.

While some Labour councillors on Fingal County Council recently backed Independent Senator David Norris’s bid to secure a nomination to contest the presidency, Fine Gael councillors have been instructed not to support his nomination.

“The Labour Party leader has indicated that he will be giving no direction to members of local authorities in the matter of nominations for the presidency,” a Labour spokesman said.

Labour TDs and Senators will not have the same freedom. They make up the majority of the electorate that will select a party candidate later this month.

Seeking the Labour nomination on June 19th will be party president and former TD Michael D Higgins; chief executive of children’s charity Barnardos and former Labour special adviser Fergus Finlay, and former party senator Kathleen O’Meara.

Fianna Fáil is allowing its councillors to facilitate Independent candidates seeking nominations from local authorities, while reserving its position in relation to its members in the Oireachtas.

Meanwhile, Mr Norris said he had learned from the controversy surrounding his comments in an almost 10-year-old magazine interview and would be “careful and judicious” when speaking in future.

Mr Norris, who said his bid to secure a nomination now had the support of 10 Oireachtas members, spoke about sexual activity between men and boys during an interview that appeared in Magill in January 2002. He said his remarks had been taken out of context by interviewer Helen Lucy Burke, which she denies. “I will be very judicious particularly from now on. I learned from that painful experience 10 years ago. Perhaps I didn’t learn quite enough . . . I have to be very careful and judicious.”

Potential presidential candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members or four county councils to secure a nomination.

“I have 10 members of the Oireachtas,” Mr Norris said. He said he could count Independent TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan among those who would facilitate his nomination, although Mr Flanagan has not commited to voting for Mr Norris in the election.

Those who have gone public with their intention to support Mr Norris’s nomination are Independents Stephen Donnelly; Finian McGrath; Mick Wallace; Maureen O’Sullivan; Catherine Murphy and Thomas Pringle.