{"id":40252,"date":"2025-09-24T07:47:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T07:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/40252\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T07:47:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T07:47:06","slug":"maria-steen-secures-18th-nomination-as-presidential-ballot-deadline-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/40252\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Steen secures 18th nomination as presidential ballot deadline nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent presidential hopeful Maria Steen received a boost to her campaign this morning after securing her 18th nomination from independent senator Aubrey McCarthy.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Mr McCarthy confirmed he would lend Ms Steen his vote but stressed that it should not be seen as an endorsement of her campaign.<\/p>\n

“\u2018I don\u2019t know Ms Steen and I have met her for the first time yesterday evening. This decision is not an endorsement of her or her campaign, but I believe that candidates deserve the opportunity to make their case to the voters, and the voters deserve the right to decide who is best suited to serve,” Mr McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

Ms Steen remains two votes short of the 20 required to appear on the ballot paper, with expectations she will need to cross the line by 10am this morning.<\/p>\n

Mr McCarthy described his conversations with Ms Steen as \u201cfrank\u201d during an interview on RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland.<\/p>\n

“We certainly did not agree on everything,” he added.<\/p>\n

The independent senator said he could not stand in the way of Ms Steen getting on the ballot.<\/p>\n

\"AubreyAubrey McCarthy pictured with President Michael D Higgins.<\/p>\n

However, when asked if he would vote for Ms Steen, Mr McCarthy said he would “have to see.”<\/p>\n

He added he would need to examine the campaigns of all candidates \u2014 Jim Gavin, Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys \u2014 before deciding on his vote.<\/p>\n

Mr McCarthy said he had not engaged over the last few hours with some of his Independent Seanad colleagues, saying many may find his nomination of Ms Steen a “surprise.”<\/p>\n

Ms Steen, a conservative campaigner and barrister, said on RT\u00c9 News last night that she would welcome any politician breaking party ranks to back her.<\/p>\n

Sources in the Steen camp said the possibility of politicians in Government parties backing her could not be ruled out.<\/p>\n

However, speaking in New York, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin warned Fianna F\u00e1il TDs and senators that there would be consequences for nominating another candidate such as Ms Steen.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said Fianna F\u00e1il has “nominated its candidate” and there was “no leeway” for TDs or senators to nominate someone else.<\/p>\n

He said the party’s rules already lay repercussions for those who defy the party whip.<\/p>\n

Independent candidate Catherine Connolly said it would not be appropriate for her to call on other TDs and senators to back another candidate in Maria Steen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of who Oireachtas members should nominate is something for them to decide, and I don’t feel it would be appropriate for me to seek to influence them in this regard.”<\/p>\n

She formally submitted her nomination papers on Tuesday, amid questions surrounding her comments about Hamas.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Ms Connolly said Hamas was \u201cpart of the fabric of the Palestinian people\u201d.<\/p>\n

She defended her remarks but added she has repeatedly condemned Hamas\u2019s actions \u201cwithout hesitation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Connolly said it would not be appropriate for her to call on other TDs and senators to back another candidate<\/p>\n

The Galway TD said Hamas is a terrorist organisation and \u201cviolence is never justified\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Martin also said it was not a misstep by his party’s candidate, Jim Gavin, who appeared to suggest that Hamas could have a role in post-war Gaza if this was voted for by the Palestinian people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said it was “not the job of a presidential candidate to articulate everything a government minister says”.<\/p>\n

Also speaking to reporters from the United Nations summit in New York, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said the position of the Government in relation to Hamas “is absolutely crystal clear”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Hamas is a despicable, illegal terrorist organisation that has brought nothing but misery and pain to the people of Israel and the people of Palestine. It offers the people of Palestine no future.”<\/p>\n

Asked about Catherine Connolly’s refusal to take questions at a campaign launch on Monday, Mr Harris said it was “good to take questions”.<\/p>\n

“This campaign is coming in fast now, and we’re getting down to the [last few weeks].<\/p>\n

\u201cPosters will go up later this week, and nominations will close tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“And therefore, obviously, the level, understandably, of media and public interest in the campaign will increase.”<\/p>\n

Posters will start to appear across the country from Wednesday morning as the countdown to the election begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent presidential hopeful Maria Steen received a boost to her campaign this morning after securing her 18th nomination…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,978],"class_list":["post-40252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-presidential-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}