Isn’t the Dáil a better place for a Dragon?

IT is understandable, given yesterday’s entry of a third former television ‘Dragon’ into the Presidential race, that people should wonder if Gavin Duffy, Sean Gallagher and Peter Casey have a masterplan at play, a scheme which would see them each take a slice of the incumbent President’s vote, and then, with transfers, result in one of the triumvirate winning the day.

When such a suggestion was put to them yesterday, all three candidates denied it. Given that they are all men of honour we will have to accept their answer and take them at their word.

And yet the question remains as to why three men of similar ilk are coincidentally putting themselves forward for the highest office in the land.

Such a question is especially valid when you consider that none have any track record of public service, none of them ever having offered themselves for election to local council or, indeed, to Dáil Éireann.

Yet it is to those structures of public life that people who want to make a positive difference to this country generally turn.

So why would the only foray of Messrs Duffy, Gallagher and Casey into the area of elected office be one that takes them on a presidential rather than a political path?

Ultimately, one of the great aspects of the presidency is that it is open to any citizen over 35.

Anyone is eligible to run on their own merits and so the three ‘Dragons’ are perfectly entitled to seek a nomination.

To achieve that, however, the first question that each man will surely face will be this: why are you, as someone who has never opted for public service, now setting your sights on the presidency rather than a seat in Dáil Éireann?