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LAST UPDATE | 2 Sep
IN MAY, HEATHER Humphreys said that she would not be seeking Fine Gael’s nomination for the upcoming presidential election, citing a want to spend more time with family.
However, things move fast in politics and after party colleague Mairead McGuinness pulled out of the race for the Irish presidency on health grounds, the door was once more left open for Humphreys.
Humphreys told her local Cavan-Monaghan radio station Northern Sound on 19 August that she had “decided to go for it”, but MEP Seán Kelly had said on the same day that he would be “honoured” to represent his party in the presidential race.
However, it was Humphreys who racked up the endorsements, resulting in Kelly “reluctantly” withdrawing yesterday.
That paved the way for Humphreys’ coronation today as Fine Gael’s candidate.
Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris today described Humphreys as a “woman of integrity, dignity, and heart”.
“In an increasingly divisive world, I believe Heather can break down barriers and bring people together,” he added.
“Her record in public life has demonstrated that vision of unity and community.”
Humphreys herself remarked today that Ireland has “made me everything I am and given me everything I have”.
“I will be a candidate with a vision; with experience and with a track record of supporting communities; bringing people together and representing Ireland on the world stage,” said Humphreys.
“I’m not promising perfection but I promise honesty, compassion and service.”
Humphreys’ name will go forward for ratification at a party event on Saturday, 13 September, which will also be the official campaign launch.
So after the official confirmation from Fine Gael, who is Heather Humphreys and why does she want to be President of Ireland?
Humphreys, who has been in politics since 2003, has served under four taoisigh: Enda Kenny, Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin, and Simon Harris.
She is the longest-serving female Cabinet Minister in Fine Gael history.
Before her retirement, Humphreys served most recently as Minister for Social Protection and Rural Affairs and also had a short stint as deputy leader of Fine Gael following Simon Harris’s appointment as leader in April 2024.
Humphreys and Harris were both elected to the Dáil in 2011 and were close confidants while in office.
So much so that Humphreys was chosen to propose Harris in the Dáil when he was elected as Taoiseach last year.
Known for her straight talk and wit, Humphreys prompted laughs in the chamber when she said she thought 24-year-old Harris was “a young lad walking around on a school tour” when she first met him in Leinster House.
Humphreys’s time in government began with a rocky start when, as Minister for Arts, she was embroiled in a scandal over a botched appointment to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).
Humphreys gave a number of uneasy performances in media interviews at the time before admitting in a statement that she had been asked to appoint the candidate in question, John McNulty, a supermarket owner in Donegal, to the board at the request of Fine Gael officials.
Reflecting on that period in an interview with the Irish Times last year, Humphreys said the ordeal taught her an important lesson: “Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. I never forgot it.”
Despite her rough start as a minister, Humphreys endured and became a reliable figure at the Cabinet table and a hugely popular one among the Fine Gael grassroots.
Her confidence in front of the media grew over the years.
In 2023 when she was approached by two reporters from The Ditch who were seeking comment on claims she did not seek planning permission for using two derelict residential properties she owns as office storage, she allegedly told them:
“Do you know what youse boys do? Fuck off and leave me alone.”
Before entering the Dáil in 2011, Humphreys was the manager of the credit union in Cootehill, close to where she lived with her husband Eric and their two daughters.
From Drum in County Monaghan, Humphreys, a Presbyterian and daughter of an Orangeman, has previously described herself as “a proud Ulsterwoman, a Protestant and an Irish republican” and has long spoken of the need for inclusion on the island.
While Minister for Heritage, she was heckled on a number of occasions and criticised over her department’s stance on the protection of buildings linked to the Easter Rising.
Her proficiency in the Irish language was called into question after she was appointed Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in 2014.
Asked a month into the role if she had started Irish lessons after she admitted she had lost the ability to speak the language fluently, Humphreys said:
“No I haven’t started Irish lessons yet, but I do hope to get some squeezed in at some stage shortly. I can’t give you a timescale because the schedule is very busy.”
She also faced criticism two years into the brief when she refused to meet with Irish language organisations such as Conradh na Gaeilge and Údarás na Gaeltachta.
Humphreys defended her decision, arguing that responsibility for such meetings fell to the minister of state in the Department, not her.
Around the same time, she also declined to be interviewed on the Irish-language radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (RnaG).
A spokesperson for the Minister said she declined the invitation because she cannot speak Irish, but despite the show clarifying that the interview could have been conducted in English, the Minister still declined to take part.
It was reported around the same time that she had visited the Gaeltacht for a week to improve her language skills.
Reflecting on her Dáil career, Humphreys cites Hot School Meals as her legacy project while Minister for Social Protection, while the rollout of the auto-enrollment retirement savings system will also be seen as transformative — if the government finally implements it.
During her time as Minister for Social Protection, Humphreys also scrapped proposals put forward by her own department to reform disability payments after campaigners labelled them as ‘ableist’.
The reforms would have introduced a tiered system for Disability Allowance and would have linked the level of payments to a determination on capacity to work and the nature of the disability.
A month before she announced the decision not to proceed with the reforms, the government had received a resounding defeat in the Care Referendum.
The proposed amendment, if passed, would have seen the deletion of reference to a woman’s “life within the home” and her “duties in the home”.
However, disability campaigners argued that the replacement wording put forward by the government would have classed disabled people as “burdens” on their families and society.
Humphreys was also the minister in charge when the government decided to double the fine a jobseeker receives if they do not engage with unemployment services, a move that was heavily criticised by opposition TDs.
Elsewhere, while a minister, she was the person who proposed that XL bully dogs would be banned after a spate of attacks, a move that animal behavioural experts took issue with.
When she announced her retirement from the Dáil, the Cavan-Monaghan TD said it was because she was no longer able to give the job her all.
“Politicians are human too; we give all we can for as long as we can but time catches up on us all. As I get older, my health and energy levels are not what they were and I know going forward that I would not be able to give the job the time and commitment it deserves,” she said at the time.
Speaking last month to Northern Sound, the 65-year-old said she was feeling “burnt out at the time” and that “everything has changed.”
“I knew the tank was probably running on empty, so I’ve been enjoying life since I retired from the Dáil. The family are well, I’m well. I feel like I’m back to my old self,” Humphreys said.
“I’ve had a good rest. The tank is full again. And you know, timing is a funny thing, because I have never felt as good about taking on a challenge.”
Asked why she had decided to campaign for Fine Gael’s presidential bid, Humphreys said that the role of president is a “unifying force”.
“I want to focus on using the presidency to listen to people. I want to hear their story and where there is division, try and facilitate reconciliation and understanding,” Humphreys said.
“And I do want to deepen relationships between the people of this island, both north and south.”
A version of this article first appeared on The Journal on 19 August, after Humphreys announced her presidential bid.
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