FORMER PRESIDENTIAL candidate Dana Rosemary Scallon receives 80 or 90 calls a week from people encouraging her to run for office again, her brothers said yesterday.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Miriam Meets . . . show yesterday, Ms Scallon said she hadn’t ruled out running for the presidency.
The former MEP and Eurovision winner received almost 14 per cent of the vote when she ran for the presidency in 1997, coming third after Mary McAleese and Mary Banotti.
President McAleese’s second term of office will end in November.
Ms Scallon told presenter Miriam O’Callaghan that running for the presidency was not on her radar at the moment. “But I’ve learned never to say never, Miriam, because I said I wouldn’t be a singer and I was.
“I said I’d never be in politics and I was. And as I’m sitting before a prospective candidate as yourself, I’ll never say never.”
Ms O’Callaghan’s name was associated with the presidency last year but she issued a statement in August stressing that she would not be standing for the position.
Ms Scallon’s brothers John and Gerald, who were also interviewed on the programme, said their sister was constantly being urged to run for election. Her office received “about 80 or 90 calls every week and that’s been going on for eight or nine months”, they said.
While no parties have yet selected candidates for the presidential election, several public figures have declared their interest in the position.
MEP Mairéad McGuinness’s name has frequently been mentioned as the most likely Fine Gael candidate while both outgoing deputy Michael D Higgins and Barnardos’ Fergus Finlay have declared their intention to seek the Labour nomination.
MEP Brian Crowley has often been mentioned as the most likely Fianna Fáil candidate while Independent Senator David Norris has declared his intention to run.
Paddy Power bookmakers website offers odds on 50 people becoming the next president but does not include Ms Scallon’s name. Its more unlikely candidates include singer Shane McGowan, at 500/1 and pop impresario Louis Walsh at 250/1.
