Contest for nomination within Fine Gael 'good for the party and democracy' — Sean Kelly
Speaking on RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland, Mr Kelly said that his previous announcement that he would not contest the election had been 'the most difficult decision' of his career.
Advertisement
Mr Kelly said he believed the "time is right" to put himself forward, after discussing it with family and supporters, in light of the changed circumstances following Mairead McGuinness' decision to withdraw from the race.
'
I'll certainly seek the Fine Gael nomination now, unfortunately, that Mairead McGuinness had to withdraw. And there is a process now by which we can seek nominations over the next five days. So I would be looking for the nomination and after that, and if I'm nominated, I would greatly honoured to represent the party and stand for election for president.'
When asked what made him change his mind, Mr Kelly said that obviously circumstances had changed with the withdrawal of Mairead McGuinness.
'That changed the position. We needed a new candidate. I was the last man standing the last time. So as I said, it was a very hard decision, the hardest decision I ever made. Not to contest, but now that it is open again. I'm delighted and enthusiastic about the prospect of running for President of Ireland.'
Mr Kelly, who is a former President of the GAA, said he believed he had grassroots support and he had been convinced by the response from the public that he had the support and the momentum to get the nomination.
Advertisement
Ireland
Fine Gael reopens nominations to find candidate fo...
Read More
Being president of Ireland would be the 'highest honour', he said.
'I think actually there's a huge potential in the job, it's the highest honour in Ireland. And if you look at what the last number of presidents have done, they've done tremendous work. There's huge flexibility there.'
'There's massive potential there and I will be reflecting on that and looking at ways to make the Árás relevant to people even more than ever before. And also to work hard and to reflect, particularly abroad, the experience I've gained in Europe and to be able to promote it abroad, to benefit tourism and trade, etc. So there's massive potential there.'
Mr Kelly said that he will now start looking for support within the parliamentary party. It was important that there be a contest, it would be good for the party and good for democracy
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
22 minutes ago
- BBC News
4chan will refuse to pay daily UK fines, its lawyer tells BBC
A lawyer representing the online message board 4chan says it won't pay a proposed fine by the UK's media regulator as it enforces the Online Safety to Preston Byrne, managing partner of law firm Byrne & Storm, Ofcom has provisionally decided to impose a £20,000 fine "with daily penalties thereafter" for as long as the site fails to comply with its request."Ofcom's notices create no legal obligations in the United States," he told the BBC, adding he believed the regulator's investigation was part of an "illegal campaign of harassment" against US tech has declined to comment while its investigation continues. "4chan has broken no laws in the United States - my client will not pay any penalty," Mr Byrne began investigating 4chan over whether it was complying with its obligations under the UK's Online Safety in August, it said it had issued 4chan with "a provisional notice of contravention" for failing to comply with two requests for said its investigation would examine whether the message board was complying with the act, including requirements to protect its users from illegal content.4chan has often been at the heart of online controversies in its 22 years, including misogynistic campaigns and conspiracy are anonymous, which can often lead to extreme content being posted. 'First Amendment rights' In a statement posted on X, law firms Byrne & Storm and Coleman Law said 4chan was a US company incorporated in the US, and therefore protected against the UK law."American businesses do not surrender their First Amendment rights because a foreign bureaucrat sends them an email," they wrote."Under settled principles of US law, American courts will not enforce foreign penal fines or censorship codes. "If necessary, we will seek appropriate relief in US federal court to confirm these principles."They said authorities in the US had been "briefed" on their response to Ofcom's statement concludes by calling on the Trump administration to invoke all diplomatic and legal levers to protect American businesses from "extraterritorial censorship mandates".Ofcom has previously said the Online Safety Act only requires services to take action to protect users based in the UK. UK backs down Some American politicians - particularly the Trump administration, its allies and officials - have pushed back against what they regard as overreach in the regulation of US tech firms by the UK and EU. A perceived impact of the Online Safety Act on free speech has been a particular concern, but other laws have also been the source of 19 August, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the UK had withdrawn its controversial demand for a "backdoor" in an Apple data protection system - saying she worked with the President and Vice President to get the UK to abandon its days later, US Federal Trade Commission chairman Andrew Ferguson warned big tech firms they could be violating US law if they weakened privacy and data security requirements by complying with international laws such as the Online Safety Act."Foreign governments seeking to limit free expression or weaken data security in the United States might count on the fact that companies have an incentive to simplify their operations and legal compliance measures by applying uniform policies across jurisdictions," he 4chan does successfully fight the fine in the US courts, Ofcom may have other options."Enforcing against an offshore provider is tricky," Emma Drake, partner of online safety and privacy at law firm Bird and Bird, told the BBC. "Ofcom can instead ask a court to order other services to disrupt a provider's UK business, such as requiring a service's removal from search results or blocking of UK payments."If Ofcom doesn't think this will be enough to prevent significant harm, it can even ask that ISPs be ordered to block UK access." Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
Reuters
41 minutes ago
- Reuters
US halts worker visas for commercial truck drivers, Rubio says
WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The United States is immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday. "The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers," Rubio said in a post on X. The administration of President Donald Trump has taken a series of steps to address concerns about foreign truck drivers who do not speak English. Trump in April signed an executive order directing enforcement of a rule requiring commercial drivers in the U.S. to meet English-proficiency standards. Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has launched an investigation into a crash on a Florida highway that killed three people. The crash involved a driver who was an Indian national and did not speak English or have legal authorization to be in the United States, according to Florida and U.S. officials. Harjinder Singh has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and police said he attempted to make an illegal U-turn through an 'Official Use Only' access point blocking traffic and causing the fatal crash that resulted in the deaths of three people in a minivan that struck the truck. Florida officials took custody of Singh in California to return him to the state to face charges. A lawyer for Singh could not immediately be identified. While the English-proficiency standard for truckers was already longstanding U.S. law, Trump's executive order in April reversed 2016 guidance that inspectors not place commercial drivers out of service if their only violation was lack of English. Duffy has said that failing to adequately enforce driver qualification standards poses serious safety concerns and increases the likelihood of crashes. FMCSA said in 2023 that about 16% of U.S. truck drivers were born outside the United States. Last month, Reuters reported that Mexican truck drivers in the border city of Ciudad Juarez have begun studying English in efforts to comply with the Trump order.
Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Hostage: Affairs, asylum seekers, 'Allo 'Allo accents... Netflix's drama is nuts!
Head for the bunkers — nuclear grade hokum incoming! The heart of British democracy is under attack, not from the Russians, nor Islamist extremists, but from an even bigger bunch of loonies... Netflix. The five-part political drama Hostage sees Suranne Jones playing a Labour prime minister who has to save the NHS (hurrah!) while facing down a neo-Fascist French president (boo!) planning to station Euro-troops in England (boo! hiss!). Meanwhile, there's a boatload of African asylum seekers fleeing persecution who need safe haven in the UK — and, gulp, they've all got ebola. And just when you think the stakes couldn't be any higher, masked gunmen only go and kidnap the PM's lovely husband, Dr Alex (Ashley Thomas). He's in South America with a Medecins Sans Frontieres team, giving vaccinations to happy village children and their poor-but-grateful mums, when terrorists take all the doctors prisoner. They shoot a translator dead. At first this appears to be more proof of what rotten rotters they are, but Dr Alex overhears them talking in English, so perhaps they just realised they wouldn't need a translator. With a gun to his head, Dr Alex is forced to record a video message to his wife. She must resign within 24 hours or one of the hostages will be killed. Suranne Jones, who excels at melodrama, does her best to breathe credibility into all this over-egged nonsense. We're so used to seeing her in extreme situations — wreaking vengeance on an unfaithful husband in Doctor Foster, solving murders aboard a submarine in Vigil — that it doesn't seem too delulu when she takes command of a hostage rescue attempt... and then apologises to the Chief of the Defence Staff for failing to let him know what she was doing. Mind you, it's not much of a rescue. British special forces have apparently been reduced to one soldier, a grizzled veteran called Thomas. And he's armed only with a pistol and a telescopic camera that looks as though he ordered it from one of those sales booklets that fall out of the Sunday supplements. He probably bought a nice pair of orthopaedic sandals and a reversible jacket at the same time. If the PM has any chance of getting her husband back, she's going to have to rely on the French military. But President Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy) has her own problems — she's been having an affair with someone she really shouldn't, and now a blackmailer is threatening to release a video of them in bed together. No wonder Vivienne is so spiteful and mean to her family... though it doesn't explain why, when they're alone, they speak English with 'Allo 'Allo accents. If all that stretches your credulity, consider this. It's only in a fictional drama as bonkers as this that Labour can manage to elect a female leader.
