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LAST UPDATE | 23 Sep 2025
MARIA STEEN FACES an uphill battle to get on the ballot paper for the presidential election, but she may yet pull it out of the bag.
Independent Ireland is due to decide later this morning whether to lend its support to Maria Steen after meeting with her yesterday.
She is chasing 20 Oireachtas signatures ahead of tomorrow’s nomination deadline.
Steen was making pitches to local authorities yesterday, but that route has now closed.
Gareth Sheridan had also been hoping to secure the support of four local authorities, but failed to gather any nominations yesterday and conceded that his campaign is over.
There has been some murkiness surrounding exactly which Oireachtas members have committed to nominating Steen, with would-be king-maker Peadar Tóibín keeping some names firmly under wraps.
With just one day to go until the nomination deadline, how are Steen’s chances looking?
Minister of State Marian Harkin has confirmed this morning that she is among those who have backed Steen to stand for president.
She is understood to be among the previously unnamed Oireachtas members who signed Steen’s nomination papers.
The Sligo–Leitrim Independent said her “preferred candidate” was still Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, but she said she signed Steen’s nomination papers because she is a “credible” candidate who reflects “all or some of the views of a significant portion” of Irish society.
Harkin added that she feared if Steen is unable to contest the election, then it could further “polarisation” and lead to certain groups of people “believing they are being sidelined” in the race for the Áras.
“While I do not agree with Maria Steen’s views on a number of issues, I will however defend her right not only to have those views but also to articulate them in a presidential election,” Harkin said.
Yesterday afternoon, Regional Independent TD for Meath East Gillian Toole confirmed to The Journal that she will be nominating Steen ahead of tomorrow’ deadline at noon.
When asked if Steen will be getting her vote come election day on 24 October, Toole said she likely would.
Toole was keen to stress her dissatisfaction with the current system to get on the ballot, arguing that it is undemocratic and that the route should be expanded to allow more people onto the ballot paper.
The total number of backers in Steen’s corner remains unclear.
Over the weekend, Tóibín tweeted that he was “very hopeful” that she had 18, just two short of the required 20, but a source in Independent Ireland said today that it was “presumptuous of Peadar” to count Independent Ireland’s four TDs in this figure.
We are very hopeful that we will have 18 people signing nominations for Maria Steen on Monday.
— Peadar Tóibín TD (@Toibin1) September 20, 2025
All we will need is two more Oireachtas members.
People want a real democratic choice.
I urge independent TDs and Senators to stand up for democracy and let the people decide.
Independent Ireland met with Steen yesterday to discuss nominating her, with a final decision to be made this morning.
The party has said from the outset that it is open to throwing its support behind a candidate that has succeeded in securing 16 other nominations.
Following her pitch to a caucus of Oireachtas members organised by Tóbín earlier this month, she came out strong, winning 10 of the available 11 nominations.
At the time, Tóibín named eight of the 10 Oireachtas members supporting her. These are:
Tóibín, and his two Aontú colleagues, TD Paul Lawless and Senator Sarah O’Reilly; TDs Mattie McGrath and Carol Nolan; and Senators Joe Conway, Rónán Mullins and Sharon Keogan.
The Aontú leader said at the time that the other two Oireachtas members who had committed to supporting Steen needed to consult with their respective teams first.
The following week, Tóibín then said that Steen had garnered the support of an 11th Oireachtas member. Again though, he did not make the name public.
The following morning, junior minister Michael Healy-Rae announced that he would be nominating Steen in a “spirit of fairness and respect for the democratic process”.
He made clear, however, that it would be Heather Humphreys who would get his vote in the actual election.
Meanwhile, Independent TD for Dublin Mid-West Paul Gogarty has said that he would add his nomination to Steen’s camp if she gets close to the 20 required.
Similarly, Independent Ireland’s four TDs have said they will back a candidate where they are four votes short of the 20.
It’s understood Toole, Harkin and Gogarty are the three unnamed Oireachtas members Toibín has. said are supporting Steen.
There are a number of Independent voices in the Oireachtas who have not yet publicly said who they will be nominating.
While Independent Barry Heneghan has said he would not lend his support to Steen due to her views on same-sex marriage, some of his Regional Independent colleagues may yet throw their support behind her.
Michael Lowry has said publicly that he will be voting for Heather Humphreys, while Danny Healy-Rae has said he will make a decision on who he is nominating this week.
Likewise, Independent Senators Michael McDowell and Victor Boyhan have also not yet declared their intentions.
Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell has been vocal on X in recent days, saying that he will not nominate Steen.
He has argued that a lot of people appealing to him to nominate her do not understand the role of the president and instead want to use the election to relitigate the outcome of the referendum on repealing the 8th amendment.
The presidential election will be held on 24 October.
With reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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