Gay Byrne has confirmed he will not be in the running for the Presidency.
The 77 year old broadcaster phoned the Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin earlier today to inform him of his decision not to contest the election. The phone call went as follows:
“Hello Micheal, Gay here”,
“Jesuz I hope its good news Gay”,
“I’m afraid not, to be honest I never really took the offer seriously, who in their right mind would want to run as a Fianna Fail sponsored candidate”,
“Ah Jesuz, we could have got you in, the media were starting to buy into the idea”,
“I think they were pulling your chain Micheal, the people are not going to vote for anyone associated with Fianna Fail, your small grouping is Toxic”,
“Will you not take more time to think about it?”,
“No, that’s it, my final answer, I’m off now for a ride on the bike Bono gave me, Slan”.
So far, there has been no reaction from the party.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Micheál Martin had told Mr Byrne that Oireachtas members could facilitate his nomination as an Independent candidate if he decided to stand in the election.
Voting will take place in late October and it is expected that Michael D Higgins will win the day as Sinn Fein and independents are expected to give Higgins their backing.
