Mitchell pledges to ‘renew the Republic’

THE next president will be tasked with renewing the Republic and “rescuing it from dereliction”, Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell has said.

The danger the state faced was “dereliction of the courage, the idealism, the nobility, the equality, the very heart and soul on which it was founded,” he said.

Speaking at the official launch of his campaign in Dublin yesterday, Mr Mitchell said Ireland now needed “solidarity, belief, direction, confidence, energy, integrity, experience and can-do”.