Why Enda might fancy Michael D’s job
A COUNCILLOR friend of mine, north inner city man Nial Ring, received a copy of the Proclamation issued by President Higgins summoning the Seanad. He points out interesting wording on the presidential proclamation. It says the Seanad will be summoned on Wednesday ‘after the General Election
lately held’. This is the wording from all previous summonses but it could be changed to ‘after general election held over 100 days ago’. The dictionary definition of ‘lately’ is recently or not long ago. Yet President Michael D Higgins disregards time in a way that few of us successfully do. He was elected President after an exciting yet exhausting election at the age of 70. We were assured that he would not run again. But momentum is building for Mr Higgins to be returned to the Park. At 77 he would not fancy an election. The parties can agree that he can go forward as the only nominee and thus be returned without a contest. This has happened three times before, with Seán T O’Kelly in 1952, Patrick Hillery in 1983 and Mary McAleese in 2004. The first impediment to the unopposed return of President Higgins is the fractured state of politics, which is likely to continue to the deadline of 2018.
The really big obstacle could be Enda Kenny. Fine Gael TDs tell me that Kenny understands he has lost his popularity. He understands that he could lose a Presidential election.
But does any politician ever accept that he or she has become unpopular? In his few secluded hours of thought does Enda Kenny understand that he is now electoral poison? Not a chance. Fine Gael made a laughable selection for the 2011 election contest. And they could do it again – if Kenny really wants to stay for two years that could see him survive until a 2018 Presidential election. And it would give everybody a face-saving exit strategy. But it would be anything but a face-saving result.