Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she is mulling a possible run at the presidency but stressed her party has yet to decide which course of action it will take in the weeks ahead.
Speaking on Saturday evening she reiterated that Sinn Féin had still to choose between running its own candidate or throwing its weight behind another in November’s presidential election.
However, she stressed the importance of a campaign and highlighted the opportunity it presented for a “wider political and societal conversation outside of the acoustic of a general election”.
She told reporters her party was considering “essentially two options: to stand a Sinn Féin candidate or to back another candidate and we are still talking about that. It is August now and in September we will make that call.”
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When asked if she was considering a run she said she had “obviously been thinking about things on a personal level but more importantly I’ve been leading and involved in, and listening to the party conversation”.
When further pressed she laughed and said she “would like to be in the sunshine now and walking the hills of north Portugal, which I was doing last week”.
The election is scheduled to take place in November and Independent TD Catherine Connolly is the only candidate who seems certain to appear on the ballot.
Ms McDonald said that while she did not believe the election was front and centre in people’s minds now – pointing instead to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the pressure on parents looking to cover back-to-school and third-level costs – the campaign would be key in the weeks ahead.
She said the campaign should be about “the vision candidates have and the country we want, [and] the values we subscribe to”.
