Theresa Reidy: Three reasons for the brutality of presidential elections
(Left to right) Heather Humphreys, Catherine Connolly, and Jim Gavin in the RTÉ studios last Sunday before Mr Gavin's dramatic withdrawal. File photo: Conor O'Mearain/PA
Presidential elections are tests of human endurance and discipline. Uniquely in the Irish electoral landscape, candidates are subjected to the most intense and invasive scrutiny of every aspect of their lives.
There are three reasons for this.
First, the role of the president is curiously varied while at the same time quite limited. Most of the president’s time is spent honouring citizens and communities, receiving ambassadors, welcoming visiting political dignitaries, connecting with the Irish abroad and representing the Irish people.
Some have described the role as a type of elected monarch. And so, voters want a warm person, who is comfortable in conversation with everyone, and who is welcoming, dignified and distinguished.
The President of Ireland does not have a policy role. They cannot change the national budget, build more houses, hire more teachers and nurses, or change the State’s foreign policy in any way. The presidency is a constitutional position with a small number of important formal roles.
The president appoints the Taoiseach, government ministers, judges and some other State office holders. These appointment are ceremonial, the president doesn’t choose the people, s/he formally appoints them following their nomination by others.
The president summons and dissolves the Dáil on the advice of the Taoiseach at the end of a term, and after each general election.
The president may also convene a meeting of the Dáil and Seanad, following consultation with their Council of State (advisory body which includes presidential appointments) but the message they convey in any address to this meeting must be agreed by the government of the day.
There are areas where a president can make political decisions. The president has “absolute discretion” to refuse to dissolve the Dáil on the advice of a Taoiseach who has lost the support of a majority of the Dáil. A president might do this if they thought another government could be formed without fresh elections.
Although the power has never been used, circumstances have arisen during three presidencies when this power was relevant. These were moments of intense political controversy, and especially during the presidencies of Patrick Hillery and Mary Robinson, the contexts were of collapsing governments mired in deep controversy.
Perhaps the most important role of the president is to act as guardian of the Constitution. The president must scrutinise all legislation and sign all bills passed by the Dáil and Seanad once they are satisfied that the bills are compatible with the Constitution.
If the president has concerns about the constitutionality of a bill, they must consult with the Council of State before making a decision on whether to refer the bill to the Supreme Court to determine its constitutionality.
The power is a constrained one and has been used very sparingly by presidents because once a bill has been referred to the Supreme Court and deemed constitutional, it cannot be challenged further in the courts.
The judgement and independence of a president are of incalculable importance in these rare moments when their decision is needed to manage electoral and constitutional matters on behalf of the people of Ireland.
This, in part, explains why there is so much focus during the election campaign on the character of the candidates, their personality, their past roles, how they have behaved. Because scrutiny of the past is the best way that the electorate can get a sense of what a person might be like as president.
The electorate want to know that they can trust the candidate at those critical junctures when the president is the most important citizen in the State, when their decision to call an election, not call an election or refer a bill to the Supreme Court directly impacts the lives of all citizens.
And so the campaign is unrelenting on the candidates, their every move and utterance is parsed and analysed.
And this is possible because of the second unusual feature of the presidential elections, there are only a small number of candidates, two this time.
Candidate numbers peaked in 2011 with seven on the ballot paper.
Contrast that to the 686 candidates that contested the general election last November. In a presidential election, there is nowhere to hide, and few other candidates to take the heat.
And this brings us to the third point which is that although presidential elections always had an intense and personal character, this feature has amplified and grown over the decades.
The media environment has radically altered. Gone are the days of partisan newspapers where a candidate under pressure might get a sympathetic hearing.
All media outlets engage in detailed scrutiny of each candidate. There are multiple radio stations, more TV stations than before, more debates, more interviews.
The campaign is relentless which is why some candidates can feel like they are under siege from all sides.
And the campaign matters. A majority of voters decide who they will vote for during the campaign. Party affiliation is no guarantee of a base level of support. Even close supporters of parties go outside their parties in presidential elections.
Moreover in 2025, some parties don’t have candidates in the race and so their supporters will have to vote for someone outside the party.
The personality, skills, traits and character of the candidates move centre-stage and the campaign investigates every single aspect of these.
It can be grim and gruelling but Irish presidents leaving office have tended to be highly popular with the public, citizens have generally been happy with their choices.
The brutality of the election might be an unpleasant but necessary part of that outcome.
- Professor Theresa Reidy is a political scientist in the Department of Government and Politics at University College Cork.
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