Main Points
Maria Steen secured 18 nominations from members of the Oireachtas, two short of the 20 required, meaning she cannot contest the presidential election.Senator Aubrey McCarthy gave his support to Steen on Wednesday morning, but she failed to convince others.Nominations to enter the presidential race closed at noon.It is understood that each TD and Senator who might have been willing to nominate Ms Steen received hundreds of emails and dozens of personal calls from her supporters.Who exactly is Maria Steen? Here is a profile of the Iona Institute barrister.Profiles: Meet the three candidates who will be on the ballot next month.Independent candidate Catherine Connolly has clarified her views on Hamas.Fianna Fáil’s candidate Jim Gavin has said that online claims about him are “obviously lies”.
Órla Ryan – 2 minutes ago
At her press conference, Ms Connolly also rejected a narrative that the presidential election campaign – with just three candidates in the field – will be dull.
“I don’t know that narrative,” she said, adding that she spent Tuesday evening canvassing in Clondalkin and Lucan “didn’t see a sign of dullness in that campaign”.
She spoke of going to an equine centre for children and taking questions “from people of all ages”.
Ms Connolly suggested that journalists could join her at such campaign stops “and see the questions that are being asked and the level of intensity of the engagement and how this election matters to the people of Ireland”.
She added: “It really matters to them who is going in and fulfilling that role of president of this beautiful country.”
As the only sitting TD in the race, Ms Connolly will have to divide her time between Leinster House and the campaign trail and she conceded that she will miss some Dáil sitting days.
She said it has been “a challenge” since the Dáil returned last week but she was in the chamber today raising issues about Children’s Health Ireland and she will be attending the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday where TDs are expected to quiz the Oireachtas authorities on conditions for workers responsible for broadcasting proceedings in Leinster House.
The Galway West TD said she will “try to be in the Dáil for important issues”, adding: “I will do my best but obviously I will be giving all my time to the presidential campaign.”
Órla Ryan – 6 minutes ago
Independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly says she does not see herself serving a second term in Áras an Uachtaráin should she win the election: “I will give my all for seven years, hopefully will then do something else in my life as I have done previously.” pic.twitter.com/H5BEmVmllT
— Cormac McQuinn (@CormacMcQuinn) September 24, 2025
Independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has said she does not see herself serving a second term in Áras an Uachtaráin should she win next month’s election, Cormac McQuinn reports.
Ms Connolly said that serving a single term is what she hopes to do “at this point”, adding that she hadn’t thought about it but has been “forced to look at that” in response to queries from journalists.
“The best answer I can give is I will give my all for seven years, hopefully will then do something else in my life as I have done previously.”
She was speaking at a press conference after she received a letter to the Government from the Veterans for Peace group urging the Coalition not to scrap the triple lock on deploying significant numbers of Defence Forces personnel overseas.
Ms Connolly is opposed to dropping the triple lock, arguing it would impact on Ireland’s neutrality.
The Government contends that its proposed legislation to get rid of the triple lock would remove the effective veto of permanent members of the UN Security Council, like Russia and China, on Ireland deploying more than 12 troops on missions abroad.
Ms Connolly read from the letter, saying it outlines that “the triple lock is the safeguard that ensures our Defence Forces are not deployed without rigorous checks and balances”.
Órla Ryan – 26 minutes ago
Maria will not be on the ballot.
Its a testament to the woman that she did so well.
FF/FG & some of their ‘Independents’ pulled the ladder up to prevent citizens having a say.
Thanks to all the TDs/Senators who helped.
We will try better & we will win. https://t.co/s635mjlb2U pic.twitter.com/mqraAArXaJ
— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) September 24, 2025
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who led efforts to get Oireachtas nominations for Maria Steen, has criticised Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and certain Independents who “puled the ladder up” and failed to back Ms Steen.
Fine Gael councillors had been instructed to oppose the nomination of Independent candidates, though some broke ranks.
Earlier this month, Fianna Fáil decided to not give a similar order to its councillors. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he trusted FF councillors to support the party’s presidential candidate, Jim Gavin.
Órla Ryan – 40 minutes ago
On the campaign trail bright and early this morning with Presidential candidate Jim Gavin @gavinforthearas & local TD for Meath West Aisling Dempsey. Great support for Jim in Navan recognising his leadership in so many roles 🗳️ pic.twitter.com/jijdScbLtn
— Jack Chambers TD (@jackfchambers) September 24, 2025
Jack Chambers, Minister for Public Expenditure and Fianna Fáil’s director of elections for the presidential election, is on the campaign trail with Jim Gavin in Meath today.
Independent presidential candidate Catherine Connolly raised the issue of the external review of spinal care at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in the Dáil today, Marie O’Halloran reports.
She said the review began in September 2023 and almost two years later was “still at phase one” as she called for a date for the delivery of the report.
Ms Connolly is the only TD among the three confirmed presidential candidates, including former minister Heather Humphreys and former Dublin Gaelic football manager Jim Gavin, after the noon deadline for nominations.
Ms Connolly also spoke in the Dáil last week and attended the Public Accounts Committee.
The Galway West TD said in the Dáil on Wednesday that the Temple Street spinal care review is the fourth into the children’s hospital, “not to mention all the internal reports”.
“People are asking for an independent inquiry, and we know what that leads to with inquiries.”
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, taking leaders’ questions, said he did not have the information and would ask Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, but he understood she had not yet received it.
He added that the minister’s intention to integrate the CHI into the HSE “is a positive development”.
Mary Robinson pictured at her inauguration in December 1990. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh
The last time there were only three candidates in an Irish presidential election was back in 1990.
The eventual winner, Mary Robinson, ran for Labour and became Ireland’s first female president.
She was up against Fianna Fáil’s Brian Lenihan Sr and Fine Gael’s Austin Currie.
In the wake of Ms Steen’s failed bid to get on the ticket, Independent Ireland is now calling for a referendum to change the nomination process for presidential elections, Ellen Coyne reports.
The party, which announced its backing of Ms Steen’s bid on Tuesday, said it will bring forward a bill which would effectively make it easier to get on the ticket.
Independent Ireland said that this year’s presidential election had highlighted “an affront to democracy that can no longer be ignored.” It has started drafting a bill which it said it would seek to bring forward “as soon as the legislative process allows”.
“The current system is convoluted and places far too much power in the hands of too few people,” Michael Collins, the party leader, said.
“While we recognise that not everybody who thinks they can be president should automatically appear on the ballot, the barriers are now set so high that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can effectively issue diktats, stifle democracy, and deny the people their right to decide. We also need to return power to our democratically elected councillors in this process.”
Independent Ireland is proposing that, in future, a candidate who needed 20 signatures to run would also be able to rely on the support of members of the European Parliament, rather than just from members of the Dáil and the Seanad.
It also wants to lower the threshold a candidate would have to reach in order to run with the support of councils. At the moment, prospective candidates need the support of four councils. Independent Ireland wants a candidate who secures the support of 80 individual councillors to be able to run.
Under this system, Maria Steen likely would have succeeded in being able to run in this year’s presidential election. Over 70 councillors this week signed a letter to independent members of the Oireachtas, calling on them to nominate Ms Steen.
“This is about trust in our democracy,” Mr Collins. “The people of Ireland deserve the right to choose from a genuinely open field of candidates, not one curated and controlled by the establishment. That is why we are seeking this referendum.”
Also at her press conference, Ms Steen thanked councillors who voted for her during her efforts to secure a nomination through the local authority route.
“I’m also grateful to the 18 parliamentarians, true democrats all, who gave me their signatures, some of whom because they wanted to support me and vote for me in the election, and some of whom simply because they believed in democracy and that the verdict on my candidacy should be rendered not by an elite clique but by the people.”
Ms Steen added: “My effort to make the ballot has not been successful but I do not feel like I’ve lost. I have the privilege of returning to life at home with a wonderful family.“
She thanked her husband Neil and her five children “for their patience and unwavering love” as well as her parents.
Ms Steen also acknowledged other independent presidential hopefuls that made unsuccessful bids to enter the race.
“Other candidates like Nick Delehanty and Gareth Sheridan had their own perspectives to offer and worked diligently through a very challenging process.”
She added: “It has been a privilege to have won the confidence and support of so many people around the country over the past few weeks. And while it would have been the honour of my lifetime to serve as first citizen of Ireland, being a citizen is honour enough for me.“
Ms Steen did not take any questions from the media.
When asked if she accepted she should have started the process of seeking nominations earlier, she replied: “Our daughter turns four today. I’m going to go home and celebrate now with my family.”
Speaking about the fact there will only be three candidates in the presidential race, would-be candidate Gareth Sheridan said the “lack of choice on the ballot is going to lead to a lack of representation” and “a democratic deficit”.
In a statement on Wednesday, he said the process is “not befitting the office of the presidency which in turn undermines our democracy and the authority of the presidency itself, no matter who prevails”.
“The damage is done. There will be an underwhelmingly low turnout,” he added.
Conservative campaigner Maria Steen bows out of the presidential election race after failing to secure 20 Oireachtas nominations to get on the ballot paper pic.twitter.com/mnuiqqGthO
— Cormac McQuinn (@CormacMcQuinn) September 24, 2025
Ms Steen conceded she had fallen short in securing enough support from TDs and Senators to enter the presidential election race during a brief press conference outside Leinster House, Cormac McQuinn reports.
Ms Steen said: “Since announcing my intention to seek a nomination to run in the presidential election, I have been humbled by the outpouring of support for my campaign.
“While I’m honoured to have received 90 per cent of the signatures required from members of the Oireachtas, I regret to say that it’s not enough and that time has now run out.”
She added: “I entered this race with a hope of giving voters a real choice.
“The response from the public in recent days confirms the hunger that there is for an alternative candidate.
“Sadly that hunger will now go unsatisfied.”
Ms Steen argued: “Rarely has the political consensus seemed more oppressive or detached from the wishes and desires of the public.”
Conservative campaigner Maria Steen has fallen short in her bid to secure enough nominations to enter the presidential election.
She got 18 of the required 20 Oireachtas nominations, ahead of the noon deadline.
Senator Rónán Mullen – one of the 18 politicians who nominated Ms Steen – has suggested her bid to enter the presidential election is over, Harry McGee reports.
Mr Mullen predicted: “She won’t be on the ballot.”
Another source in Steen’s camp also said it is looking ominous.
“Ironically, I think Maria not being in the race is bad for [Catherine] Connolly. She would have taken votes from government candidates and given a big bunch of anti-establishment transfers to Connolly,” the source said.
Peader Tóibín plans to submit a complaint to Meath County Council following its decision not to nominate a candidate for the Presidency.
The Meath West Deputy told LMFM there was “a lot of confusion and chaos” at the meeting, Vivienne Clarke reports.
The Aontú leader claims the voting process was unclear, resulting in Aontú councillor David Boyne abstaining from the vote.
“There was a lot of confusion and chaos at that meeting. The meeting actually had to be stopped because councillors didn’t know what was happening at the time,” Mr Tóibin said.
“David voted so that there would be a vote first and foremost. He was operating remotely and his connection with Meath County Council dropped and, as a result, he came in at a stage where he abstained because he wasn’t sure exactly what was happening.”
Another update from Cormac McQuinn: Maria Steen was hoping to lodge her presidential election nomination papers at the Custom House at 11am.
However, as of now, there has been no update from her camp as to whether she has secured the 20 Oireachtas nominations required to enter the presidential election.
Ms Steen is at Leinster House as last-ditch efforts to secure nominations for her to enter the presidential election race continue, Cormac McQuinn reports.
The noon deadline is just over an hour away.
In other political news, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said Europe is not “going to hell” and denied Ireland has “open borders” after US president Donald Trump’s address at the UN General Assembly.
During his speech, Mr Trump accused leaders, particularly in Europe, of “destroying” their countries by allowing “uncontrolled” immigration, saying: “Your countries are going to hell.”
Speaking to reporters in New York City afterwards, Mr Martin said there was “nothing surprising” in the US president’s address, Keith Duggan and Jack White report.
While Europe has “challenges like everybody else”, Mr Martin described it as a “bastion of good-quality living” and one of the most lucrative single markets in the world.
“So, I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that perspective that Europe is going to hell. It’s not,” he said.
Catherine Connolly has responded to Mr Tóibín’s remarks that he asked her to nominate Ms Steen, Cormac McQuinn reports.
A spokesman for Ms Connolly said she “signed her own nomination papers yesterday and is therefore not in a position to nominate any other candidates”.
Mr Tóibín has said there is a “groundswell of support” for Ms Steen, Vivienne Clarke reports.
“I know that there are thousands of people phoning up TDs and Senators’ offices and sending emails at the moment. And people just want the chance to pick the President. And that’s my message to TDs in Senators in this eleventh hour, let the people pick the president,” he told Today with Claire Byrne.
“There’s a long history of democrats standing up, giving their name and their signature for a nomination just to allow a democratic election. And the problem is, I think, that in this election there’s definitely a democratic deficit. It’s the narrowest field for a generation.
“I really worry that we’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people who are not going to engage in this campaign, who are not going to vote in this election, because they feel that their voice is not represented in this campaign.”
Mr Toibin denied that the situation for Ms Steen was hopeless, saying: “I wouldn’t be involved in politics unless I believe in what’s possible.”
“If Maria got onto the ballot there would be a significant chance that hundreds of thousands of more people would actually vote on that given day … It could possibly mean that there would be a bigger pool of transfers open to individual candidates in that scenario. It could actually be beneficial for some of the incumbents in relation to that.”
Áontu leader Peadar Tóibín has said it is still “possible” that Maria Steen will achieve 20 nominations before noon (she currently has 18).
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, he said he had asked Catherine Connolly to sign a nomination form for Ms Steen to ensure there was not a “democratic deficit”, if there were only three candidates.
However, he said he did not receive a response from Ms Connolly.
Ms Steen has just over an hour to secure the extra two nominations she needs.
During the same interview on LMFM, Mr Gavin said, if elected, he would not be partisan.
“The president’s the first citizen of the country, not the first politician.
“I’ll speak out on issues that I believe speak to the heart of the Irish nation without fear or favour.
“The presidency isn’t about promoting one’s ideology, promoting one party, promoting oneself, it’s about promoting what’s great in Ireland.”
Mr Gavin admitted he had “lost” his use of the Irish language, but said he intended to learn to speak Irish again whether or not he became president.
Posters for Jim Gavin, Fianna Fáil’s candidate, have started to appear in Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times
Fianna Fáil’s presidential candidate Jim Gavin has said he received word from social media company TikTok this morning that it will take action on the misinformation and abuse he has received on the platform, Vivienne Clarke reports.
“It’s not only misinformation, it’s lies,” he told LMFM’s The Agenda programme.
“I’m very focused on what I need to do (in the campaign) and it certainly won’t distract me but when family, when friends, were brought into it I had to say ‘stop’.
“This needs to be called out for what it is – it’s just simply not good enough, it is not acceptable, it cannot be normalised that somebody can go online, whoever they are, and tell lies and abuse people online.
“It just is not acceptable and it’s not good for my mental health.”
Mr Gavin added that Coimisiún na Meán has “been given relatively new powers in terms of dealing with abuse and misinformation and lies online, and they need to take that action”.
“Meta had moved on it last week and I got information this morning that TikTok are moving on it which demonstrates that they also believe that there are lies, misinformation and abuse.
“But it’s not about me, it’s about the wider context of this in our society. It’s just not right.”
With two hours to go before the deadline, TDs and Senators supporting Maria Steen have been trying to contact Independent TDs and Senators this morning without success, Harry McGee reports.
None are answering their phones, according to sources.
Efforts are focused on four Independent TDs: Michael Lowry, Noel Grealish, Sean Canney and Kevin Boxer Moran.
It is understood that each TD and Senator who might be willing to nominate Ms Steen has received hundreds of emails and dozens of personal calls from her supporters.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who has been spearheading efforts to get Oireachtas nominations for Maria Steen, posted on X: “2 hours left for nominations for the presidential election. Just 2 more signatures are needed.”
He called on TDs and Senators who have not yet made up their minds to back Steen.
“Let the people pick the president.”
Dissecting the last 24 hours, Miriam Lord writes that Maria Steen, opponent of marriage equality and abortion, is being “championed as a symbol of choice”.
When Independent Ireland announced it was backing Ms Steen’s nomination on Tuesday, the group said the people of Ireland deserved “the right to choose”.
Lord writes: “The fab four appealed to other Independent TDs and Senators to “facilitate democracy” and get Maria over the line.
“And they finished with a stupendously ironic last line, declaring she “deserves the opportunity to present her case and the people of Ireland deserve the right to choose”.
“Not to be confused with a woman’s right to choose, an opportunity which Maria Steen refused to countenance during the referendum on abortion, which was carried by a landslide vote.”
Ahead of nominations closing at midday, election posters have already started to appear on lampposts in Dublin.
Poster for Heather Humphreys, Fine Gael’s candidate. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times
Election poster for Independent Catherine Connolly in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7. Photograph: Dan Dennison 
Poster for Jim Gavin, the Fianna Fáil presidential candidate. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times
The presidential election is due to take place on Friday, October 24th.
The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, October 7th. The deadline for special or postal voting arrangements is next Monday, September 29th.
To register, or check your details are up to date, visit checktheregister.ie.
The chief executive of the Electoral Commission, Art O’Leary, has acknowledged that plans to coordinate a single electoral database “are almost there” but will not be in place for the forthcoming presidential election.
Research on other forms of voting such as postal voting is ongoing, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Vivienne Clarke reports.
At present there are 31 separate electoral databases, he said. This can lead to duplication.
“We actually have 31 separate registers each run by local authorities and right now they don’t speak to each other.
“So, there’s a brilliant project underway with the Department of Housing and the local authorities to create this single database using PPS numbers and dates of birth and eircodes where we’ll be able to spot duplicates as they pop up and remove them which is the current difficulty.”
Mr O’Leary said the electoral databases could be out by “hundreds of thousands”.
Catherine Connolly pictured at the Custom House in Dublin on Tuesday. Photograph: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos
Independent candidate Catherine Connolly clarified her views on Hamas on Tuesday.
Connolly gave an interview to BBC Northern Ireland’s Talkback programme on Monday in which she said Hamas was “part of the fabric of Palestinian life”. She criticised British prime minister Keir Starmer’s assertion that Hamas could not be part of the government of a future Palestinian state. It was, she said, up to the Palestinians to pick who governs them.
She stood by her remarks on Morning Ireland on Tuesday but also condemned Hamas. That interview was much-discussed in the last 24 hours.
As Pat Leahy writes in this analysis: “One by one, Opposition parties traipsed out to the plinth to answer questions about their presidential candidate’s attitude to Hamas. Some of them squirmed, clearly uncomfortable and perhaps beginning to wonder, ‘Just what have we got ourselves into here?’ Others doubled down, insisting they agreed with every word Connolly said.”
Senator Aubrey McCarthy said he was supporting Ms Steen but not endorsing her.
Speaking about their meeting, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: “We certainly did not agree on everything.”
Senator Aubrey McCarthy, pictured in Dublin in May, has backed Ms Steen. Photograph: Tom Honan
The founder of the charity Tiglin said: “This is my first presidential nomination process and from the outset I said that I would not hold back access to a nomination to anyone who managed to get nominations in the late teens…
“I am an independent senator myself, I was voted in on the Trinity panel, so that’s why I said: no, I cannot be one to hold back somebody if they’re suitable as a candidate.”
Who exactly is Maria Steen? In this profile, Ellen Coyne writes:
“During Pantigate, Steen and her colleagues were seen by some as the last vestiges of the old Irish establishment.
“Now Steen is being presented by her backers as the only true anti-establishment voice in the presidential field, given her almost outré views on social issues.
“Ten years on from the marriage equality referendum, Steen’s campaign seeks to frame her as a trailblazing challenger to the new orthodoxy of progressive Ireland.”
Ms Steen generated some momentum on Tuesday when four Independent Ireland TDs and Independents Marian Harkin and Danny Healy-Rae publicly said they would support her bid to get on the ballot, reports Cormac McQuinn.
She said last night that “good progress” was made on Tuesday telling RTÉ news: “I was at 12 this morning, and I’m now at 17 this afternoon, and I am hoping to get to 20 before the end of the evening.”
She did not reach that last night but said: “I’m happy to take a nomination from anybody who’s willing to give it to me, and I am available to talk to everybody and meet if they would like to.”
Presidential hopeful Maria Steen pictured with Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín outside Leinster House earlier this month. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín – who has been spearheading efforts to generate Oireachtas nominations for Ms Steen – set out the very tight timescale left for her to secure nominations last night, Cormac McQuinn reports.
Mr Tóibín said he understood Ms Steen was still talking to a number of independents “and there’s a possibility that one or two might come on tonight and there’s rumblings that maybe some people in Fianna Fáil might like to add their names to it too”.
But he also told Virgin Media’s Tonight Show “people are leaving it late in the day”.
“She has to really have those [nominations] by 10:00 tomorrow.”
He added that she has an appointment to lodge nomination papers at the Custom House at 11am “so people need to make up their minds”.
Mr Tóibín also argued that there is a “democratic deficit” in the election currently with just three candidates formally in the race.
He said the two candidates for the Government parties are “very similar” and that Connolly is “a good candidate but she appeals to a certain demographic”.
However, he added that as things stood “there’s a whole section of Irish society who simply won’t have their voices heard in this election and won’t have a runner in the race and a bad thing for democracy.”
At present there are just three candidates officially in the presidential election race – Heather Humphreys of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin and left-wing independent TD Catherine Connolly.
Should Ms Steen fail to secure enough nominations, that would be the fewest number of candidates in a presidential election since 1990.
Conservative campaigner Maria Steen is just two nominations away from having enough support to contest the presidential election after another Senator confirmed he will facilitate her entry into the race.
Independent Senator Aubrey McCarthy confirmed on Wednesday morning that he will nominate Ms Steen.
Ms Steen now has 18 of the 20 nominations from TDs and Senators she needs to get on the ballot paper, but time is running out.
The deadline for nominations is noon and in reality Ms Steen needs to have the 20 signatures before then in order to have time to lodge papers at the Custom House.