One-time referendum campaign allies Maria Steen and Michael McDowell have clashed over the circumstances that led to her failing to secure enough support from Oireachtas members in her presidential bid this week.
The former presidential contender claimed the Independent Senator declined to back her bid for the Áras because of a disagreement they had over her appearance on a televised debate in the March 2024 family and care referendums in which they both campaigned successfully for No votes.
Rejecting the claim, Mr McDowell told The Irish Times: “I believe she is a divisive person.”
On Wednesday, Ms Steen fell just two votes short of the required 20 Oireachtas members needed to secure a place on the October 24th presidential ballot, leaving just three contenders in the race: Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin, Heather Humphreys for Fine Gael and Catherine Connolly, the Independent and left-wing candidate.
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On Wednesday, the barrister and conservative campaigner blamed an “oppressive” political consensus for blocking her attempt to secure enough nominations.
In an exclusive interview with The Irish Times, Ms Steen claimed Mr McDowell was one of a number of people who tried to get her to stand aside from an RTÉ Prime Time debate during last year’s referendums campaign.
She claims the “incident” was the “only thing” she could think of when considering Mr McDowell’s motivation for not nominating her this week.
The Independent Senator, in response, strongly rejected her claims.
Ms Steen and Mr McDowell accused each other of making defamatory statements in separate exchanges with The Irish Times around their conflicting accounts of a phone call made before a televised debate before last year’s referendums.
Mr McDowell, who came under intense pressure this week following his refusal to sign Ms Steen’s nomination papers, said there was “absolutely no connection” between last year’s referendums campaign and his decision not to back Ms Steen this week.
He said he was “very, very uneasy” about sharing a platform with her last year.
“I believe she is a divisive person,” he said.
Ms Steen told The Irish Times that Mr McDowell effectively ignored her for four weeks when she was trying to get him to sign her nomination papers.
“He sent one text. He didn’t answer any phone calls – not one phone call,” Ms Steen said.
Ms Steen claims Mr McDowell objected to her appearing in a televised RTÉ debate in last year’s referendums campaign against then tánaiste Micheál Martin for the Yes side when she telephoned him for advice ahead of the debate.
She has claimed he also made dismissive comments about her appearing in the televised debate during their call. Mr McDowell denied this.
He said he was “astonished” and “very, very angry” she was now making these claims, describing her remarks as “defamatory”.
Mr McDowell insisted he had no interest in doing the RTÉ debate. He claimed he had been asked by two No campaigners to call Ms Steen and persuade her on their behalf not to appear in the debate.
Ms Steen said she thought “the optics of having two men debate about women in the home were all wrong”.
On her presidential bid this week, Mr McDowell said he was never going to nominate her for president and “she knew that”.
“She knew at all times that I was not going to support her. And she kept putting pressure on me through the media and others to sign her document,” he said.
In response to criticism of him for refusing to meet her, he said: “I wasn’t going to meet her because I wasn’t going to say to her face what I thought of her.”
