FF cllrs wrongfoot colleagues in giving backing to Norris

Fianna Fail councillors took the ruling coalition of Fine Gael, Labour and independent councillors on Meath County Council by surprise on Monday by proposing that the council support the nomination of Senator David Norris for the Presidency. The FF party's councillors throughout the country were freed from the party whip and given sanction by their leader, Micheál Martin, to have a free vote in the nomination of presidential candidates. The move, proposed by Cllr Tommy Reilly and seconded by Cllr Shane Cassells, completetely wrongfooted the other parties' councillors who had expected a short presentation by the senator himself but instead found themselves being shunted towards open support for Norris. However, the move was blocked by Fine Gael party whip on the council, Cllr John Farrelly, who said he had never heard such an eloquent speech as the one delivered by his former Oireachtas colleague, David Norris, but nevertheless expressed a preference for a debate about the nomination for the next meeting of the council. The senator, who needs to persuade four county councils to nominate him, got over the first hurdle on Monday when Fingal County councillors voted to support him. Senator Norris said he was coming to the council as "a supplicant" to put his case in his run for the presidency. The councilors were at the heart of local democracy. He was standing as an independent, had no allegiance to any party yet had many friends in political parties. "I am asking you, I want you to take the historic decision to allow me to apply for a job. I have every confidence in the judgment and good sense of the people of Ireland. We haven't had an election for 14 years," he said. He added that there were two ways of getting a nomination - through the support of four county councils, or by getting the signatures of 10,000 people. "I think that you can take this route if you will be so good," he said. Cllr Tommy Reilly said that Senator Norris had set out his vision for the presidency and he hoped that he would get the nomination from Meath County Council.