Cork County Council vote not to nominate presidential candidate

Cork county councillors have voted not to nominate a candidate in the presidential election following a very close vote in county hall this afternoon.

Fine Gael councillors voted against nominating a candidate, as did Sinn Féin, but the vote came to 32 councillors in favour of nominating a candidate, including Fianna Fáil, Social Democrats, Labour, Independent Ireland and Independents, and 19 voting not to nominate anyone.

Maria Steen was nominated by independent councillor Alan Coleman, and seconded by Danny Collins, who said: “She comes across very well, she came across well last year in the debates for the family and care referendum.” 

Fianna Fáil’s Gillian Coughlan nominated William P Allen, saying “he’s a county man, and I think it would be remiss of us not to have a Cork County nomination. He’s a tradesman and I think it would be an honour to have a tradesperson in the Áras.” 

Cork city independent councillor Kieran McCarthy was nominated by Fianna Fáil’s Audrey Buckley and seconded by her party college Michael Looney, who highlighted that he has known Mr McCarthy for many years and worked well with him in the past.

It went to a vote, in which 26 councillors voted “none of the above”, 11 voted for Maria Steen, four voted for William P Allen and nine voted for Kieran McCarthy, including several members of Fianna Fáil and Labour.

If two more councillors had voted for a candidate, Mr Allen would have been eliminated and it would have gone to a second vote between Ms Steen and Mr McCarthy, however, the “none of the above” won out in the end.

Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue, who had voted for Ms Steen, called the result “a disgrace”, yelled out “Where is democracy? There is no democracy” after the vote.

Speaking to The Echo after the meeting, Mr McCarthy said: “Fair play to Cork County Council for hosting the meeting.

“It was quite a rigorous process, they asked tough questions so they were clearly taking this seriously. 

"The majority of candidates wanted to see someone nominated, but it probably got a little bit political after that where various parties have their own candidate they’re supporting.

“To the people who nominated and seconded and voted for me, thank you very much for your belief.”