BUSINESSMAN GARETH SHERIDAN, who is trying to get his name on the ballot for the presidential election via support from local councillors, has said that councillors should not block independent candidates, arguing it would be a “dangerous precedent”.

Sheridan, the former CEO of US-based company Nutriband, launched a campaign for the presidency earlier this month.

Contenders need to be nominated by either 20 members of the Oireachtas or four local authorities to get their name on the ballot, so Sheridan has been meeting with city and county councillors to try to win their support.

Speaking on Ireland AM on Virgin Media Television this morning, Sheridan said he has been meeting with councillors, particularly independents, since the start of the year.

Asked whether he thinks party councillors would go against their parties to vote for him, he said: “I’m not necessarily asking that the party councillors back me. I’m just asking that they abstain and don’t block me.

“As long as they don’t block, there is a pathway there to have a proposer and seconder in consideration at a council level or a local authority level,” he said.

“There is a route there, but it would require the active participation of party councillors to not to block nominees like myself,” he said, adding it would be a “dangerous precedent” as it would mean the “only considerations we could have for presidential elections would come from within party ranks”.

“I think it’s important that we do have independents that can contest. I think it would be in the spirit of our Constitution to make that case.”

So far, the only candidate confirmed to have enough support to be on the ballot is TD Catherine Connolly, who is being jointly backed by several left-wing policies.

Fine Gael members are deciding whether to give their support to Heather Humphreys or Seán Kelly after first pick Mairéad McGuinness had to withdraw for health reasons, with Humphreys looking on track to be her replacement.

The two other largest parties, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, are still mulling over their options. 

Speculation has abounded over whether former Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern, who was Taoiseach at the time of the 2008 financial crash, will emerge as a contender.

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Asked whether Ahern should be the Fianna Fáil candidate, Sheridan said: “I think that’s a question for Fianna Fáil. But I think we’re all aware of the background there, and particularly the generation that I’m trying to give a voice to, their feelings on that.”

“It’s a decision for Fianna Fáil… I can only comment on what I’m trying to bring and what I’d like to bring forward,” he said.

He added that “we’re all aware of the failures of that time”, referring to the recession and the events that led up to it.

“I was graduating secondary school around that time. It impacted me for years. I went down the entrepreneurship route, lived at home, lived with the parents. I eventually moved abroad because I couldn’t make a success at the company here, and then it took seven, eight more years to actually turn the company around,” Sheridan said.

“So, you know, it’s something for consideration on polling day.”