There has been a clear frustration at the lack of candidates available for the 2025 Presidential Election, with spoiled votes taking up a significant portion of the count.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are taking much of the blame, with both parties having made it clear that they would prefer councillors not to back Independent bids.
Fine Gael’s Minister for Agriculture and TD for Kildare South Martin Heydon rejected the notion that his party was responsible for creating a two-horse race.
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“It shows a significant amount of dissatisfaction with the offering that was put before people, I think that's quite obvious,” he told Shane Coleman.
“The public are very angry that there were only two candidates, they wanted more choice; that was something that was very clear.
“As the only party who put forward their own candidate to contest this, Fine Gael, I don't believe that's on us.”
Heather HumphreysFormer presidential hopeful Gareth Sheridan called out the nomination process as “not fit for purpose” in its current form.
According to Minister Heydon, there were plenty of politicians outside of Fine Gael who were perfectly capable of getting Independents across the line.
“There are 234 members of the Oireachtas, you only take 20 to nominate somebody to get on the ballot paper,” he said.
“Or job was to get a candidate on the field for ourselves; that's 55 of the 234.
“There were 179 other candidates - Sinn Féin of 45 members, they could have got two candidates on to the field if they wished to and they didn't. "
Minister Heydon rejected the notion that the number of spoiled votes reflected a ‘vote of no-confidence' against the Government.
“There'd be some vote of no confidence against Government if this was an election about government,” he said.
“It's not; it was election for president.”
Main image: Spoiled ballot papers (Votes) which wont be counted at the RDS in Dublin. Photo: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie. 25/10/2025
