13 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Frances Black rules herself out of presidential run
Ms Black, who first introduced the bill back in 2018, said while smaller opposition parties had spoken to her about the race to the Áras at the start of the year, she had not heard anything since.
In recent week, the senator had said she was 98pc sure she would not run in the upcoming election.
'I'm ruling myself out of the presidency for sure,' Ms Black said.
'I had conversations with people at the beginning of the year, around this, around the smaller opposition parties, and I haven't heard anything since."
The Independent senator said candidates need to be brave to decide to run, as the campaign can be 'a bloodbath'.
'I've said it before, you'd want to be a very brave person to go into the presidential election because it's a bloodbath.
'I have too much work to do, particularly on this bill, I think I'm a lot of work to do another even after this bill, I think there's more work to be done,' Ms Black said on the Last Word with Matt Cooper on Today Fm.
On Tuesday, Tánaiste Simon Harris brought draft legislation of the Government's version of the Occupied Territories Bill, now called Israeli Settlements Prohibition of Importation of Goods Bill 2025.
While the bill will see a ban on the importation of goods from the illegal occupied territories, the bill does not include services, which has been the subject of criticism from the Opposition.
While Mr Harris has said he is not against the inclusion of services from a policy perspective, he has sought legal advice from the Attorney General.
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'The Tánaiste has committed to me, both to me, and publicly that the Government is willing to include services in the final bill, if we can get the legal detail right,' Ms Black said.
'I am 100pc certain that we can, and I fully intend on holding him to that promise,' she added.
Ms Black said the passing of this bill would be 'the first step to real consequences to what Israel is doing' in Gaza.
'My hope is that other countries will obviously follow suit. I think they're waiting,' Ms Black said.
'I was in Brussels a couple of weeks ago, talking to a fair few different countries, and they're all waiting and watching to see what Ireland is going to do with this bill.
'The world is watching us, and it's a very, very important piece of legislation,' she added.
