Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys, Ivan Yates and Ivana Bacik have all had their say today. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

FINE GAEL HAS gone on attack mode in response to an answer presidential hopeful Catherine Connolly gave to a hypothetical question. 

Over the course of the day, the issue has dragged a variety of political actors into the ring, with Connolly saying Fine Gael is “absolutely scared” of the momentum in her campaign.

Connolly also hit back at former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates, who said today he would “smear the bejaysus” out of Connolly if he were still in Fine Gael.

“Fine Gael are in serious trouble if they’re standing over comments like that from a former Fine Gael minister,” Connolly said.

Hypothetical rapist

On Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder yesterday, presenter Kieran Cuddihy asked Connolly if she would hire someone convicted of rape to work in the Áras, if they were suitable for the role.

The question was asked in the context of Connolly employing a woman in 2019, who had been convicted of possessing a weapon and ammunition.

In response to the question, Connolly said she “would have to reflect on that”. 

Responding to this today, Fine Gael TD and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill issued a press release arguing that the remarks disqualified Connolly from being President.

She also questioned how Mary Lou McDonald, Ivana Bacik and Holly Cairns can support Connolly following her answer, with Bacik and Cairns both issuing statements heavily criticising Carroll MacNeill in response.

“A Presidential candidate who employs a person convicted by the Special Criminal Court to work for them in the Oireachtas and to then consider hiring a convicted rapist for the Áras is not fit to be our President.

“How can Mary Lou McDonald, Ivana Bacik and Holly Cairns back a candidate who said she would need to reflect on whether she would hire a convicted rapist to work in Áras an Uachtaráin?,” MacNeill said. 

Heather Humphrey’s slams Catherine Connolly for saying she would have to think about whether she’d hire someone who was convicted for rape, and says that victims need to be thought about. pic.twitter.com/wsvPok57Zx

— Eimer McAuley (@eimer_mcauley) October 9, 2025

Connolly has since expanded on her answer and said she would “absolutely not” employ anyone who is on the sex offenders’ register. 

The same question was put to Fine Gael’s presidential candidate Heather Humphreys today. 

Humphreys said she was “quite shocked” to hear Connolly’s initial response to the question, and said she personally “absolutely would not” hire a person convicted of rape.

“I just wonder what any woman in this country would think, or what she would feel if she had been a victim of rape, if they thought somebody who was a convicted rapist could be employed in Áras an Uachtaráin by a possible next President of Ireland,” she said. 

Asked if she would be against hiring a person with a prior conviction in general, Humphreys said she would not, and that there are “different levels of crime”. 

“I believe everybody gets a chance, but you must think of the victims in this case…The victim has to have a voice in this as well,” she said.

“I do believe in rehabilitation,” she added.

In response to Carroll MacNeill’s intervention, Labour leader Ivana Bacik has hit back at the Minister for Health for dragging her into the issue.

Bacik said she was “deeply disappointed” by Carroll MacNeill’s “outrageous statement”. 

She said the minister should “know better” and added:

“As a Fine Gael TD, Jennifer co-convened the all-party Oireachtas penal reform group with me. To see her being drawn into issuing this statement with its personalised and entirely spurious attack upon me and upon other party leaders shows that Fine Gael are now resorting to increasingly desperate smear tactics.

“With two weeks still to go in this election, they need to reflect on the manner in which they are conducting their campaign.”

Similarly, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said Carroll MacNeill’s statement “should be seen for the desperate distraction attempt that it is”.

Ivan Yates

Yates, who is now a broadcaster, has added to the fracas with comments he made on a Newstalk election podcast, Calling It.

Yates chose to offer some advice to Connolly’s political opponents:

“So, if you were asking me, okay? So Fine Gael ring me and say: ‘How do we reverse this?’ right?

“You’re going to be shocked about this now… I would go bullheaded: ‘Do you want a provo in the park? Is she a Russian asset?’

“I would smear the bejaysus out of her, simply because you’ve nothing to lose.”

He said he felt this was necessary because Humphreys’ previous experience as a government minister is an “albatross around her neck”.

“Because everything that you’re unhappy with in the legacy of government, housing… child poverty and so on is hung around her,” he said.

Yates’ comments have been heavily criticised by Connolly herself and some of her supporters. 

Social Democrats’ TD Gary Gannon said Yates’ comments were “genuinely unbelievable”. 

With reporting from Eimer McAuley.