Special Olympics chief set to enter Áras race

MARY DAVIS, managing director of Special Olympics Europe and Eurasia, is today expected to announce she will attempt to secure a nomination to contest the presidential election as an Independent candidate.

Potential candidates require the support of four councils, or the backing of 20 members of the Dáil and Seanad, in order to be nominated.

Ms Davis is expected to attempt the council route, and is understood to have written to councils requesting to meet them.

Yesterday, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said he would be honoured to nominate former TD Michael D Higgins as the Labour Party’s presidential candidate next month.

Mr Howlin praised the other two nominees who have so far put their names forward, Labour’s former senior adviser Fergus Finlay and former party senator Kathleen O’Meara, but said he would be backing Mr Higgins when the party selects its candidate on June 19th.

“I think that right now he has a vision of Ireland and a vision of the presidency as a motivator of people to restore the sense of self-worth, of confidence that the Irish people need,” Mr Howlin said.

“I think he has a narrative that would be very helpful to us in the journey we have to travel in the next couple of years in particular,” Mr Howlin said.

He said he also respected Mr Finlay’s “huge intellectual capacity” and knew him very well, “but my discernment is for now Michael D is the person I would support”.

Mr Finlay, chief executive of the children’s charity Barnardos, is understood to have the support of equally senior people in the party.

Meanwhile, Independent TD Stephen Donnelly has given his support to Independent Senator David Norris’s bid to secure a nomination to contest the presidential election. “First and foremost it’s because I think David would be a great president, and what prompted me to declare for him early was the many reports I received that Fine Gael were trying to block him.”

Fine Gael has instructed councillors to block the nomination of Mr Norris. Independent TDs Finian McGrath, Maureen O’Sullivan, Catherine Murphy and Mick Wallace have declared for Mr Norris, while Fingal County Council has said it will give him a nomination.