Christina Finn reports from New York

FINE GAEL WILL run its own presidential candidate, separate to that of Fianna Fáil, Tánaiste Simon Harris has confirmed to The Journal. 

In an interview with The Journal in New York yesterday, Harris denied there would be a single government candidate in the November presidential election. 

He also confirmed that he would like to see a contest take place within the party between potential nominees that put their name forward.

“I haven’t had any discussions with any other party, but I expect we will run a candidate in our own right. That’s my that’s my working assumption,” said Harris. 

He said it is “relatively early days yet”, but mentioned that “there’s lots of different names being mentioned and mooted”.

Frances Fitzgerald, Mairéad McGuinness and Seán Kelly are all likely to seek the the party’s nomination.

“All the names I’ve seen of people mentioned and mooted are good, decent people that could make a fine contribution, but I am the party leader, and I’m going to reserve my judgment for the time being,” he said.

When asked if there would be a party consensus or whether Fine Gael would hold hustings for the nomination, the party leader said he would be surprised if only one candidate to put their name forward. 

“I haven’t sat down and had individual conversations with people who might be interested. I genuinely haven’t,” he said.

‘Contest could be healthy’

“My gut is that a contest could be healthy. So, we’ll have a convention,” Harris said, adding that ultimately it will all depend who wants to run and go to a convention.

Harris said he has asked the Fine Gael executive council to consider the presidential contest at its next meeting in early April.

It will examine the timelines and procedures for the selection of a party candidate. 

“They get back to me in April with with ideas, but what I’m saying very clearly is my party does intend to run a candidate,” the Tánaiste added. 

While Harris said he does not want to speak for the public, he questions whether the Irish people want an “extraordinarily long presidential election”, stating that his sense is they do not.