Deputies and senators from all parties yesterday dismissed the possibility that a heritage campaigner Mr Vincent Salafia could receive nominations from the 20 Oireachtas members required to allow him run for the presidency. Mark Brennock reports.
Mr Salafia yesterday confirmed that he is seeking nominations from TDs and senators, and insisted he was "optimistic" that he would receive the necessary 20 nominations so that he could oppose the incumbent, Mrs Mary McAleese.
Mr Salafia said that he had already received some positive responses from Oireachtas members and would work throughout this week to amass sufficient support. He would not say who had promised him support or which Oireachtas members he was asking to back him.
While he would be expected to seek support from the Green Party, some Independents and possibly some individual Labour deputies, Mr Salafia yesterday said he would also be "disappointed" if he did not win support "from certain Fine Gael Oireachtas members".
He cited as an example the former Taoiseach Mr John Bruton who he said had opposed the M3 motorway through Co Meath, as had Mr Salafia himself.
With no Fianna Fáil Oireachtas member expected to sign nomination papers for anyone to oppose Mrs McAleese, a Fine Gael spokesman said yesterday that the party position was "that we are not opposing Mary McAleese and we are not supporting any other candidate".
A Labour Party spokesman said that the issue of the presidency was closed as far as the party was concerned, and that he did not believe any Labour TD or senator would sign nomination papers for Mr Salafia.
The Green Party said it would consider any request at its weekly parliamentary party meeting today. The party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said he had received requests for nominations from a number of individuals, none of whom had high media profiles.
The party would therefore have to consider its attitude to all these requests. The party's finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said he believed that if Mr Salafia could show that he could garner signatures from 14 other Oireachtas members, the six member parliamentary party might consider his request.
However, this seems highly unlikely. Mr Salafia said yesterday that if nominated, his campaign would concentrate on heritage protection, which he said encompassed a wide range of issues.
"It encapsulates economic policy, public private partnerships, toll roads, planning and corruption, public transport and citizens' rights to take legal actions," he said. He would also broaden his platform to include other issues, he said. The President was the guardian of the Constitution, and in that role he would examine closely legislation such as the planned Critical Infrastructure Bill, which is designed to speed certain projects through the planning process, reducing the amount of time they can be delayed by objections.
He said that while the President, Mrs McAleese, was putting herself forward as an Independent candidate, she clearly was not independent. He said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had "conspired to take the decision away from the people" and he was hoping to frustrate them in this.
He had considered running some weeks ago but held off when it appeared that the Green Party's Mr Eamon Ryan might be a candidate.
Mr Ryan would have been "a very good candidate", he said yesterday.
Now that Mr Ryan would not be in the field, he had decided to seek a nomination.
Mr Salafia is a US-trained lawyer who has taken several legal actions against the completion of the M50 motorway through the Carrickmines castle site in south Dublin.