Sir, – Jim Duffy outlines areas on which potential presidential candidates should be questioned by councillors when seeking a nomination for election to the presidency ("Nine questions Ireland's would-be presidents must answer", Opinion & Analysis, September 5th).
He raises nine points pertaining to the president’s role and the limitations thereof.
He summarises the role of councillors as ensuring that “only competent, qualified, people are nominated, and to keep the race free from constitutionally illiterate egotists who are only interested in building their profiles for business, financial, or political gain”.
Reading the summary of submissions made to Roscommon, Louth and Wexford County Councils, it is seems that no aspiring candidate has a view on the constitutional role of the president.
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Maybe they didn’t express their views because they weren’t asked about them.
It appears that no councillor thought to ask the potential candidates about the constitutional position of the president.
Perhaps it is not just some nomination-seekers who are constitutionally illiterate. – Yours, etc,
TERRY DOLAN,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.