Higgins sets out vision of unselfish, radical society

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES had to begin by asking if they wanted to return to the selfish society from which Ireland was emerging or speak about replacing that version of society, Labour TD Michael D Higgins said last night.

The party’s candidate in the presidential election on October 27th told supporters from three Dublin constituencies in an address at the Red Cow last night that he did not have to invent a programme slogan or brand for his campaign, as “people know what Michael D stands for” .

He was “talking about the testament of his life” when speaking of inclusion in education, housing and health.

Mr Higgins set out his stall for the presidential race with aims of building a real republic, a creative society and a new citizenship.

His vision was “so different from that from which we have come, where you were defined as an important or valuable person in terms of the property you owned, with an artificial value on it,” he said. “At the same time so many people were left excluded.”

His campaign would be about moving on to “build and create the real republic of radical citizenship in a creative society proud to be Irish at home and inclusive, dealing with each other differently and warmly, playing to our strengths, celebrating the decencies there in all communities,” he said.

The election would not about “competition for strokes” or promising things the president cannot do, he said.

Mr Higgins outlined what he would be able to do as president. Aside from constitutional and ceremonial obligations the president has an ability to use discretion as “powerfully invoked by Mary Robinson.” It was about the “wider topics you chose to address” such as poverty and inclusion, what kind of Europe to have and trust in institutions, he said.

He would if elected run a series of presidential seminars to address these wider issues.

The republic was not created to allow “speculative and radical individualism to destroy this country’s reputation and bring us to our knees,” he said. “It must be replaced by a radical inclusion in which we value every citizen in their fundamental dignity and as president I can speak about that.”

Mr Higgins said he was running because “I cannot think of a better way of spending the next seven years of my life” .