David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I send my congratulations to the President, Michael D. Higgins, on his re-election. He has been an excellent President. I just hope that the media will not turn on him and make flitters out of him, because that is always a possibility. It is a moment when we should consider the presidency because we are quite a distance from the next presidential election, and we should reflect on it. I ask the Leader if we could have a brief debate on the matter to put forward a resolution that we should look at the presidency. If an incumbent President runs for election, he or she should withdraw from that role and a presidential commission should be brought in, because otherwise a sitting President has an unfair advantage.

The rules should be looked at. They were made in a period which I remember very well when there was only ever two candidates, one from Fine Gael and another from Fianna Fáil, and nobody else. These days there are six to eight candidates which means that the last three or four have no chance whatever of getting any State funding. That means we are making the presidency the preserve of the rich and I do not think that is what we need in a democracy. It should be open to everyone.

The nomination procedures need to be examined. I raised this during the Convention on the Constitution. It was by far the most popular resolution of the entire convention despite the Government doing everything it could to frustrate it. It was passed by 98%. That is how strongly people felt about the presidency. However, the Government has sat on its backside and done nothing whatever. We must also look at funding arrangements which greatly favour the political parties. This is a republic and everyone should be equal in it. The political parties should not have any advantage over an individual member of the public. I am calling for a debate on the presidency and a re-examination of the rules and procedures to make it more democratic. We have been extremely lucky in the Presidents we have had. There has been a series of excellent people, but we should ensure that the broadest number of candidates possible are able to run.

I congratulate those who put their heads above the parapet and ran for the presidency. They did us all a favour, despite the three parties having supported the incumbent which throws his victory in a certain light. The election had the lowest turnout ever, despite three political parties supporting one candidate. There is room for Independents and we should make room for Independents in an independent republic.