Bertie Ahern again refuses to rule out running for president
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Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has again refused to rule out running for president.
Mr Ahern dismissed that he was playing up to speculation he may run for president when put to him that he will not say whether he is intending to run or not.
“I’ll give you the reason. We’ve a convention in this country that the presidential election starts about three to four months out from the election,” he told the .
Mr Ahern is at Queen’s University Belfast on Wednesday for a conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to give a keynote speech to an audience which includes British prime minister Rishi Sunak, European Commission president Ursula van der Leyen, European Council president Charles Michel, and former US president Bill Clinton.
When asked about the DUP’s continued position to obstruct power-sharing in Northern Ireland, Mr Ahern said he was not on the side of “pressurising people”.
“The whole thing for 25 years is that it was inclusive and we try and keep people together and when one party has problems we try and work and encourage them, try and find solutions and I think that’s the same,” he said.
“I’m not on the side of pressurising people to death, that has never worked. In fact it normally works the other way up here, I found out that the hard way.
“So I think it’s encouragement, persuasion, the party argument, trying to find solutions, that’s the way to go,” he added.