SENATOR David Norris has said he is determined to continue his campaign to be nominated for the Presidential election.

However, this weekend’s mass exodus of many key members of his campaign staff and revelations that he sought clemency for his former partner after Ezra Nawi Yizhak was convicted of statutory rape have left his bid on shaky ground.

This evening, only five of the 15 Oireachtas members who had pledged their support for Norris’s presidential bid have confirmed they are still on board. These are:

• Stephen Donnelly, independent TD
• John Crown, independent senator – he told RTE News that he wanted the Irish people to be given the choice on whether Norris should be president. On Twitter, he said that “cutting and running” when he had always said it should be up to the people to decide “would be dishonest”.
• Maureen O’Sullivan, independent TD
• Mick Wallace, independent TD
• Sean D Barrett, independent senator

These other nine (Norris, as a senator, can also nominate himself) have either not yet decided or have not been contactable on the issue of their support for the Norris presidential bid:

• Fiach MacConghail, independent senator
• Katherine Zappone, independent senator
• Finian McGrath, independent TD
• Catherine Murphy, independent TD
• Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, independent TD
• Mary Ann O’Brien, independent senator
• Marie Louise O’Donnell, independent senator
• Thomas Pringle, independent TD
• John Halligan, independent TD