System stands in the way of democracy

THE decision by Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley to write to all of his party’s Dáil deputies, senators and MEPs reaffirming his intention to seek the party’s nomination to contest the presidential election brings a new intensity to the debate over the election.

It also pushes FF leader Micheál Martin into a tighter corner than he might like.

So great was the humiliation endured by FF in February that it was imagined that the party might not run a candidate but rather endorse an independent, possibly one from the party’s spectacularly inclusive gene pool.