Peter Casey outlines political ambitions – somewhat incoherently

Presidential election runner-up Peter Casey has said he will run for a Dáil seat in Donegal, ideally as a Fianna Fáil candidate.

Outlining his political ambitions, Mr Casey said he still aspired to the office of the Taoiseach but whether he would make it there by 2020 was “hard to say”.

The businessman and former television “Dragon” who caused consternation with his remarks on the Travelling community, said he was not intent on leaving the political stage but had difficulty setting out a concise strategy for his next campaign.

"I will be running [for a Dáil seat] in Donegal," he told Ryan Tubridy on Friday night's Late Late Show. "I might also run in perhaps one or two other constituencies as well. What I would do is I would have a running mate. And then I would step out; I would be encouraging the person to vote for my running mate and then before the actual date of having to put my name on the paper I would then let the other person go forward."

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Although this approach appeared lost on his audience, Mr Casey said he would be targeting seats in Monaghan, Limerick, Clare and Kerry, where he secured support for his presidential bid. He also did not rule out starting his own political party.

In an often uncomfortable interview, Mr Casey was confronted by members of the Travelling community in the studio audience who criticised his position on their right to a distinct ethnic status. In response, he said discrimination was abhorrent to him and that “I have nothing to apologise for”.

He appeared to accept an invitation to visit Pavee Point, the centre representing the Travelling community. However, he stood by his earlier comments that their community could be accommodated in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

“I made a suggestion that there is plenty of room in the Phoenix Park. If Travellers wanted to, why not give them . . . there’s 1,100 plus acres there, there’s loads of room, you could make it a beautiful place for them to stay,” he said, adding that they could go for five years and “get education”.

“Have you any self-awareness at all,” asked someone in the audience.

Earlier on the same programme, former president Mary Robinson said a tendency to "demonise the other" had flared up during the Irish presidential election campaign.

She had been asked her views on the surge in popularity of Mr Casey following his remarks on Travellers.

“I remember how hard we had to work to make sure that people did understand and respect the Travelling community and there is always beneath the surface a tendency to want to demonise the other, be threatened [by] the other, not respect the other,” she said.

“And I think that can flare up as it seems to have done in this election. I think it happens and it happens with populism.”

Ms Robinson said she had not followed the election very closely but was glad to see Michael D Higgins returned to office for another term, saying that while he had initially said he would not run he seemed to have found he had more to offer in the role.

During her appearance last night, she addressed a wide range of political subjects, remarking on how US president Donald Trump was a bully whom she had not met and had no particular wish to.

However, she said as the newly appointed chair of the Elders – an international organisation of public figures noted as elder states people – she would meet with the US president.

“And I would shake his hand and I would try to reason with him. But I would be very sceptical about the whole basis of that reasoning,” she said. “What I see of where he’s at and just how preoccupied he is about himself. It’s all about him. Even when he goes to funerals; even when he goes to commiserate with people, it’s about how they treated him. Come on.”

Ms Robinson also addressed climate change, noting Ireland’s need for policies in the area and confirming her newly acquired status as a pescatarian.

On that note, she mentioned the recent move by Bord na Móna to lay off hundreds of employees, a move she said was right but that would disrupt the lives of many in the midlands. “We have time to have a better, safer, healthier, renewable energy future. And I admire Bord na Móna for taking a tough decision,” she said.