Five reasons Heather Humphreys should not be Irish President
By Conall Mc Callig
With little over a week to go, the Irish public are left with two options for President of Ireland - The joint left candidate Catherine Connolly or Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys. Here Conall Mc Callig highlights five reasons why you should not give Heather Humphreys your vote:
1. Minister of three austerity governments
First elected as a Fine Gael TD in 2011, Humphreys was appointed as Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for the then Fine Gael/Labour government. She returned to cabinet as Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the following Fine Gael/Independent Alliance (Fianna Fáil Confidence and Supply) government, going on to become Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. Finally in the recent Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Green Party government, she spent time as both Minister for Social Protection, Minister for Rural and Community Development, and Minister for Justice. Humphreys voted consistently with the government from 2011-2024, on every issue from the sealing of Mother & Baby Home Records, to the selling off of public assets following the recession, to the refusal of entitled redundancy to the Debenhams workers. Furthermore, she has been accused of flip-flopping on the Occupied Territories Bill, and failing to listen to people with disabilities during her time as Minister, when she aimed to introduce a tiered disability payment system.
2. A dodgy history with planning legislation
Humphreys’ prominent role in the very governments which have orchestrated the housing crisis will be cause enough for many not to give her their vote. However, Humphreys herself has a sketchy history when it comes to abiding by planning legislation. In 2023, the former minister got into some hot water over a failure to seek planning permission for two derelict office flats which she owned, at the time used for storage. Her response on being questioned over the matter by The Ditch? “Fuck off and leave me alone!” As The Ditch have reported, following her decision to step down as a TD following the 2024 General Election, she failed to declare the cessation of her business rate exemption on these flats, and has refused to clarify whether she had paid an anti-vacancy tax on her unused residential property – which has been left empty for the past 14 years. In the subsequent time since these stories were unearthed, she has failed to provide clarity on either.
3. Proximity to the Orange Order
Whilst Heather Humphreys’ familial links to the Orange Order have been long known, it was only during the campaign itself that her own ties were brought to light.It was revealed that as of 2014, she attended the Orange Parade (or “picnic”) in Drum, Monaghan, “most years”. For the few who might not know, the Orange Order are essentially an anti-Irish hate group, founded in 1795 with a principal pledge to defend "the King and his heirs so long as he or they support the Protestant Ascendancy". They regularly organise bonfires in the North, which are decorated with flags/posters etc of Irish Republicans, left-wing figures, and even migrant boat effigies. Following the breaking of this story, Humphreys embarked on a trip to Belfast in a bid to salvage Republican support. Rather embarrassingly, a photo of the German Bundestag was included in a campaign video of the visit…
4. Disdain for biodiversity and animal rights
Heather Humphreys has long been an enemy of biodiversity and Animal Rights in Ireland. For many years, she had been responsible for providing licenses for the cruel practice of hare coursing. In a Dáil debate in 2014, she justified her approach by claiming that there was “no evidence that coursing has a significant effect on hare populations”. In a 2016 debate on a bill from former independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan to ban hare coursing, Humphreys rallied against, attempting to rationalise her position by stating that “any proposal to ban live coursing would have a serious economic impact” on rural towns. Thanks to Heather Humphreys’ legacy, Ireland is one of only three European countries in which hare coursing remains legal. She has (perhaps unsurprisingly) taken a similarly backwards and cruel position on fox hunting, having been questioned on the topic during the campaign.
This attitude is echoed in the comments of environmental activists, who are largely critical of her time as Minister post-2016, who suggested that she had “not much sympathy or awareness” towards the environmental portion of her brief.
5. She would be a PR machine for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil
Remember Leo Varadkar’s spin factory? Victory for Heather Humphreys will give Fine Gael access to the country’s largest platform to spew their propaganda, to “smear the bejaysus” out of those who oppose them, and to undermine attempts to remove the political establishment from power.
The greatest asset of having Michael D Higgins in office, particularly in his final term, was his willingness to speak out on issues even when the government of the day chose not to. He was a much stronger voice on Gaza than Micheál Martin or Simon Harris, and was willing to call out the government on the housing crisis on occasion. Whilst Catherine Connolly would be similar in approach and maybe even more willing to speak out, Heather Humphreys would instead be wheeled out whenever Fine Gael’s and Fianna Fáil’s failures needed defending. Rather than a principled independent voice capable of speaking out against government failures we would get another establishment politician.