Looks like Frances is Leo’s favourite for a Fine Gael President
... but Heather may have a view on that after refusing to rule herself out of vote
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has fuelled speculation that outgoing MEP Frances Fitzgerald will be the party’s nomination to contest the Presidency. The presidential election will take place next year, with the incumbent, Michael D Higgins, unable to seek another term after 14 years in office. Ms Fitzgerald announced in November that she would not be seeking re-election to the European Parliament. However, in an interview with the Business Post in December, she refused to rule out running for the presidency. Ms Fitzgerald did not reply to questions from the Irish Daily Mail last night.
Speaking at the Fine Gael selection convention for the party’s Dublin MEP candidate in Dublin City University (DCU) on Sunday, Mr Varadkar told delegates that Ms Fitzgerald is retiring as an MEP but not from politics.
Addressing the outgoing MEP, the Taoiseach said: ‘I know that while you’re retiring from the European Parliament, you’re certainly not retiring from politics or political activism or from Fine Gael. I know you’re already thinking about how you make contribution to the party and to the public in the period ahead, I think that will be reassuring for all members to know.’
Mr Varadkar’s comments were met with a round of applause from the Fine Gael members in the room.
He described Ms Fitzgerald as a ‘stalwart’ of Irish politics and credited her for mentoring him and other senior party members such as Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris.
He added: ‘Indeed you could say she also ran one of the most successful mentoring programmes in Leinster House with me, Simon Harris, [Minister of State at the Department of Finance] Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and [Fine Gael TD for Dublin Mid-West] Emer Higgins all having the opportunity to work with her and to learn from her.’
Other potential nominations from within the party include current Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys and outgoing EU Commissioner and former MEP Mairead McGuinness.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner last year Ms Humphreys refused to rule herself out of the race when asked directly, saying she was ‘very focused on what I’m doing at the minute’.
Party sources have noted that Ms Humphreys, who is extremely popular with rural colleagues in Fine Gael and parliamentary party members, has embarked on a tour of the country, attending a number of events, which they said is ‘no coincidence’.
Meanwhile, Ms McGuinness’s decision not to seek re-election to the European Parliament when her term as
Commissioner for Financial Stability and Financial Services ends in June has reignited suspicions she has her eyes set on the Áras.
Ms Humphreys and Ms McGuinness are unlikely to be perturbed about the Taoiseach favouring his former mentor to be the Fine Gael candidate.
Last week, Minister of State Josepha Madigan was the candidate favoured by the Fine Gael hierarchy to contest the Dublin constituency for an MEP seat, but the party membership voted for former minister Regina Doherty.
Ms Doherty failed to get reelected to the Dáil in the 2020 general election in Meath East, but was appointed by the Taoiseach to the Seanad and opted to move into the Dublin Fingal constituency at the request of her party leader.
‘A backing from the leadership is like the kiss of death,’ one party member joked in the aftermath of Ms Doherty’s surprise nomination.
Ms Fitzgerald’s political career has spanned more than three decades.
She has served as Tánaiste and in three different Cabinet ministries, as well as being elected to the Dáil, Seanad and European Parliament.
She was first elected to the Dáil in 1992 as a TD for the former Dublin South-East constituency, where she held a seat for a decade before failing to retain it in the 2002 general election.
Ms Fitzgerald served one term as a senator between 2007 and 2011 before being reelected to the Dáil for the newly created Dublin MidWest constituency in 2011.
After regaining her Dáil seat, she was appointed as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. In May 2014 she succeeded Alan Shatter as Minister for Justice.
Following the election of Mr Varadkar as leader of Fine Gael in June 2017, she became Minister for Enterprise and remained as Tánaiste.
However, five months later Ms Fitzgerald resigned from Cabinet rather than face a no-confidence motion in the Dáil which Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin had threatened.
At the time, Fianna Fáil was engaged in a confidence-andsupply arrangement with the minority Fine Gael.
Ms Fitzgerald told her colleagues at the time she was stepping aside in the ‘national interest’ to avoid a general election, but that she would be later ‘vindicated’.
A year later the Charleton Tribunal, set up to investigate allegations whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe had been smeared by various individuals and State agencies, fully accepted Ms Fitzgerald’s evidence and exonerated her.
‘Not retiring from politics’
‘Leader’s backing is a kiss of death’