AFTER TWO SPEECHES, dozens of questions and an accidental phone call over the loudspeaker, Fingal County Council concluded its special meeting this evening without backing any presidential hopefuls.

Entrepreneur Gareth Sheridan and barrister Maria Steen had both secured the chance to address the 40 councillors in Swords today.

That opportunity only came after each candidate collected the required four signatures under Fingal’s nomination rules, stricter than those of most other local authorities.

As part of the nomination process the Áras hopefuls can either get 20 members of the Oireachtas to nominate them or four county councils, with both Sheridan and Steen seeking entry to the ballot via this route.

From the moment the meeting in Fingal began however, the maths required to earn the council’s backing loomed large, and a majority of 21 councillors swinging towards either candidate was unlikely.

Councillors had been signalling for days that the votes simply weren’t there.

Fine Gael’s seven members were under party orders not to endorse any independent candidate, while Labour, the Social Democrats and Solidarity-People Before Profit councillors (totalling 11) had already seen their parties collectively throw their weight behind Catherine Connolly.

Between those blocs, the chances of Fingal rallying behind Sheridan or Steen looked slim. Adding to this, only 30 out of the 40 councillors showed up to the meeting today.

Both candidates sought to make the case nonetheless.

Gareth Sheridan and Maria Steen. Fingal County Council Fingal County Council

Sheridan appealed directly to councillors on the issue of youth and opportunity: “Fingal County Council… you can make history by nominating the youngest ever candidate to contest the presidential election,” he told councillors in attendance.

“From all the millions of people who emigrated from Ireland, I am one of less than a handful who has successfully founded, grown and floated a company, saving thousands of lives a year from accidental overdose and drug exposure,” he added.

Steen focused on family and civic responsibility, telling councillors that “at the heart of what I want to be is a president for the family, for every family, because the family is the true building block of society.”

She also stressed the importance of independent voices in the election.

“Unless an independent candidate is nominated, there is a large constituency who will be unrepresented in the presidential election,” Steen said.

Both candidates then faced over an hour of questions from councillors, ranging from the role of the presidency, views on immigration, housing, and even possible Dáil runs.

Several councillors pressed Steen on her campaign against the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum, with one councillor, Mark Boland, asking if she would support his right to surrogacy with his husband.

While she did not have time to address this question, Steen later stated that she is not “extreme or right wing”.

Later asked about the choice to homeschool her children, Steen said that she had no issues with the education system, adding that her choice to homeschool was “a private issue” which “which was made public by a journalist, not at my choosing”.

Sheridan, for his part, was pressed on how he squares his “progressive” stances with his backing from Senator Sharon Keoghan, who was previously criticised for comments which suggested there was an “organised LGBTQ+ “takeover” of society.

He told councillors in attendance that he “does not regret” her backing, stating that Keoghan “has been extremely helpful in terms of introductions for me during this process.”

“She has opened a lot of doors,” Sheridan said.

Both Sheridan and Steen were given very limited time to address the questions, meaning many councillors were left without an answer.

When the dust settled, Fingal became the first council to finalise a decision on the presidential election, and councilors decided that they would not put a name forward to the Áras ballot.

An initial vote saw Steen eliminated after receiving less votes than Sheridan (four to seven). A second vote concluded after councillors decided not to back Sheridan.

Both Sheridan and Steen must now continue their campaigns elsewhere if they are to appear on the presidential ballot in October.

Fingal’s councillors, for their part, have left the contest exactly as they found it.