Laois councillors claim presidential election ' interfered with' by Government

The eight Laois councillors not in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, have slammed the Government for "interfering" with the Presidential Election.

Cllrs Ben Brennan, Ollie Clooney, Caroline Dwane Stanley, James Kelly, Aisling Moran, Tommy Mulligan, Aidan Mullins and Marie Tuohy, tabled a joint motion to the October meeting of Laois County Council. 

Congratulating Ireland's President elect, independent Catherine Connolly, the councillors who act as a "technical group" criticised the blocking of presidential hopeful Gareth Sheridan, in an 11 to eight vote by their Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael colleagues.

The young millionaire entrepreneur later dropped out of the campaign after getting only two of four county council's support.

The Laois group asks that the Government establishes a Referendum Commission to implement the recommendations of the Constitutional Convention concerning the nomination process for Presidential elections, "as the current provisions in the 1937 act are no longer fit for purpose".

Cllr Moran, a former Fine Gael member, gave a long speech, slamming the party leader Simon Harris for his "dictat" blocking independent nominees from getting through councils. 

"Efforts to undermine the success of Catherine Connolly's success are shameful and shows us that the leadership of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are still out of touch. They are still unable to accept that it was their own disastrous roles that means the 2025 Presidential Election goes down in history as one of the worst elections interfered with by the Government.

"The two Government party leaders attempted to manipulate and stage manage and interfere in the election process in a manner that we usually associate with Russia," she said.

Labour Cllr Marie Tuohy said that the blocking, rather than abstaining of nominations of candidates by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael "denied the public a choice".

"The public saw it as a blatant control strategy, it was seen as a manipulation of democracy. This can never be allowed to happen again," she said.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan said "I was so disappointed with the conduct of councillors in this chamber".

"I believe a lot of ye knew this was wrong. You're serving the people of Laois. No two parties should be controlling who gets on the ballot. It is hypocracy now to ask for reform when the result didn't go their way," he said.

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley with husband TD Brian Stanley had campaigned with Catherine Connolly around Portlaoise.

"It was amazing the amount of people that knew her by name. We were getting people who said they were voting for nobody because they felt they had no choice. I hope this is the last election too that citizens in the North are excluded from voting for the President of Ireland," she said.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Laois councillors defended their actions.

Cllr Paschal McEvoy said Sinn Féin, Labour and Social Democrats could have put their own candidates forward.

"I stood by my party and voted against Gareth Sheridan because there was a Fianna Fáil candidate and I make no apologies. I told him if Fianna Fáil hadn't a candidate I'd abstain."

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Cllr Paddy Bracken told the group "you sit back and lecture us but we had a candidate and decided to support that candidate".

Cllr Paddy Buggy said "when Heather Humphreys was a Minister she brought a lot of investment into this county. It's a pity it has come to this but congratulations to Catherine," he said.

The motion was passed and Laois County Council will send the request to Government.