EU Election Podcast: Outgoing MEP Deirdre Clune rules out presidency run
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Outgoing MEP Deirdre Clune will not run for president, she has said.
Ms Clune, who currently represents the Ireland South constituency, will see her 10-year tenure in Europe and a near 30-year political career end when she retires next year. She entered the European Parliament in 2014, before being re-elected in 2019.
The Fine Gael politician was first elected as a TD for Cork South Central in the 1997 general election, before losing her seat in 2002. She was then re-elected in 2007, serving an additional term before entering the Seanad after the 2011 general election.
She was also elected as a councillor in 1999, before serving one term as lord mayor of Cork in 2005.
However, despite holding almost all of the elected offices available in Ireland, she told the Irish Examiner European Election Podcast she had no interest in completing the set by running in next year's Áras race.
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"No. I don't think that election would be for me at all. I want to spend the next stage in my political career in Cork, where I'm from, and to live there. Having pulled a pulley bag on a plane or a train for 27 years, I'm looking forward to my base being my home rather than a hotel room from now on."
Ms Clune is one of three Fine Gael MEPs who will not be attempting to keep their seats.
Reflecting on the days after her election in 2014, Ms Clune said MEPs were elected, but there was "no book" to show them how to do the job.
"You just book a flight and turn up. Nobody reaches out," she said of her arrival in the European Parliament.
However, she said she was able to rely on the knowledge of a Cork-born porter named Gerald McCarthy to find her way around the buildings.
"As with anything, you've to find your feet."
Ms Clune said she would continue to work within Fine Gael, but as an activist rather than a front-line politician.