Who is Maria Steen? The conservative barrister seeking a presidential run

Maria Steen is a member of Catholic advocacy group the Iona Institute, and previously represented the body during debates in advance of referendums. Picture: Wanderley Massafelli/Photocall Ireland

As the date of the presidential election is confirmed and the elections grow ever closer, new names are entering the field day after day.

One of the latest names to put up their hand seeking support is Maria Steen.

Ten Oireachtas members are said to have backed Ms Steen in her bid to get on the ballot for the presidential election.

Ms Steen secured the public backing of eight TDs and senators, while another two have given a commitment and are expected to make a statement in the coming days, according to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.

But who is Maria Steen, and does she have any hope of getting on the ballot paper?

Ms Steen has been described as a “conservative” campaigner. A barrister by profession, she also has a degree in architecture.

She has five children, ranging in age between three and 18. She has educated her children at home and has a degree in Montessori teaching, she wrote in Irish Catholic this week.

Ms Steen is a member of Catholic advocacy group the Iona Institute, and previously represented the body during debates in advance of referendums.

This included the 2015 referendum on marriage equality, during which she campaigned for a no vote. The referendum passed by 62%.

Drag queen and gay rights activist Panti Bliss at the Central Count Centre in Dublin Castle, Dublin, in May 2015, as the referendum on marriage equality was passed. Maria Steen campaigned for a no vote. File picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Ms Steen also represented the Iona Institute in the 2017 Citizens’ Assembly discussing Ireland’s abortion laws.

At one meeting in March 2017, she spoke against the idea of repealing the 8th Amendment or changing Ireland’s abortion laws, arguing that holding a referendum on the matter would be “wrong”. 

She suggested that the 8th Amendment “protected a vulnerable minority” and argued that the cultural change caused by repealing the laws would be “significant, highly regressive, and fundamentally unjust”.

She later campaigned for a no vote in the 2018 referendum and appeared in several television debates. The referendum passed by 66%.

During last year’s referendum on family and care, otherwise known as the Mother in the Home Referendum, Ms Steen was part of the side that successfully campaigned against the failed referendum.

In one televised debate, Ms Steen took part in a one-on-one debate with then Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

Mr Martin accused Ms Steen of being a “prophet of doom” in previous referendum campaigns. In response, she told Mr Martin that he had failed to do anything in his career to make it easier for mothers to stay at home.

Abortion referendum posters from the yes and no sides outside Government Buildings in Dublin in 2018. Maria Steen campaigned for a no vote. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Writing in the Irish Catholic, Ms Steen said she was seeking to run in the presidential election as she “wishes to be a voice supportive of the values and principles enshrined in our Constitution: Family first”.

If she gets on the ballot paper, she will not be the first member of her family to run in the presidential election. 

Her aunt Joan Freeman, the founder of Pieta House, unsuccessfully contested the 2018 presidential election.

However, it seems unlikely that Ms Steen will be on the ballot paper.

Although the support of Independent TD Carol Nolan is secured and Aontú appears to be on board, it is unlikely she will get 20 Oireachtas members to back her campaign.

The prospect of securing the backing of four county councils also seems increasingly unlikely.

Ms Steen has shown previously that she is a strong debater. But the prospects of her taking part in presidential debates are slim.